This Magnificent Cake!

75 MIN

My Burden

DCP • Sweden • 2017 • animation • Swedish, with English subtitles • 14 MIN

(A favorite of last year's WFF, My Burden, a mini musical epic, returns to join two other singular pieces of animation. The late night animal occupants of a shopping plaza/office block sing out their existential angst—doomed by the apocalyptic banality of subsistence in the modern age. Simultaneously recalling the films of Roy Andersson and Jacques Demy, this unforgettable stop-motion short is a masterpiece of filmmaking. )

Oh Willy...

DCP • Belgium, France, Netherlands • 2012 • animation • 17 MIN

(A man travels to a nudist colony on melancholy business, before finding himself in the midst of a sweeping fable of life, death, rebirth, and balance with nature. Winner of the prestigious Cartoon d'Or in 2012, this film was an early experiment in directors Emma De Swaef and Marc James Roels's woolly aesthetic.)

This Magnificent Cake!

Wisconsin Premiere • DCP • Belgium, France, Netherlands • 2018 • animation • French, Flemish, Malinke (Pygmy dialect), with English subtitles • 44 MIN

(Alternating whimsy and political gravitas, this remarkable work of stop-motion animation—in which everything from waterfalls to buildings to the characters themselves have been hand-crafted from wool and other fabrics—breaks down the brutal history of Belgian interference in Africa with wit, wisdom, and unexpected moments of sublime beauty. Five interconnected short stories sketch out the darkness of life under 19th-century European colonialism in Africa as it affects a Pygmy hotel worker, a lost businessman, an enslaved porter, an army deserter, and even a depressed king. One of 2018's most celebrated animated features, winning awards and praise at major film festivals across the world, This Magnificent Cake! is playful and warm without sacrificing its merciless insight into the rot at the heart of the colonial project. It's a unique experience for fans of thoughtful, challenging animation for adults, though you'll definitely want to leave the kids at home.)