The Physics of Sorrow / The Physics of Sorrow
Theodore Ushev
Canada / 2019 / 27' 0''Projections
Synopsis
We are all immigrants. Some leave cities or countries, all of us leave our childhoods. Like the mythic Minotaur, we roam our personal labyrinths, carrying nothing but a suitcase of memories, a portable time capsule filled with assorted mementoes from a past we can no longer reach. The first fully animated film made using the encaustic-painting technique, The Physics of Sorrow was inspired by the novel by Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov. It tracks the outlines of an unknown man’s life as he sifts through memories of circuses, bubble-gum wrappers, first crushes, army service in communist Bulgaria, and an increasingly rootless and melancholic adulthood in Canada – all the while struggling to find home, family and self.
Born in Kyustendil, Bulgaria, Theodore Ushev first made a name for himself as a poster artist in his native country before settling in Montreal in 1999. In Montreal, Ushev worked in the multimedia industry and then found fruitful creative soil at the National Film Board of Canada, where he has made more than 10 films to date, including Lipsett Diaries (2010), about the tortured life and art of the acclaimed experimental filmmaker, and the Academy Award-nominated short Blind Vaysha (2016). Ushev’s films have won more than 150 awards and mentions and have screened in many retrospectives.
Director
Theodore Ushev
Production
National Film Board of Canada
Sound
Olivier Calvert
categories
Grand Competition Short Film 5