Phil Mulloy: extreme animation (D)

A series of short animated films that display Phil Mulloy’s darkly comedic take on humanity combined with deliberately simple, shambolic animation. The films regularly contain scenes that, to most viewers, are shocking and confronting, daring the audience to challenge and question their own preconceived ideas on decency and right and wrong. Mulloy attacks Christianity and authority figures with gusto, arguing that they repress basic human needs and instincts. The animation confronts too, with its stark representation of the world as black and white dirty landscapes and with humans constantly baring jagged teeth. The series of shorts displayed in the title are “The Ten Commandments”, “The History of the world”, and “Cowboys”. Of the longer individual works, “The Wind of change” is the most poignant, with the film narrated by Mulloy’s musical collaborator, violinist Alex Balanescu. The story tells Balanescu’s life story, looking at the crushed individuality suffered by his people in the Soviet Union, and his musical repression in the ‘Free World’. The films contain extremely strong sexual references and violence.