Réka Bucsi has been shortlisted for an Oscar, nominated at the European Film Awards and celebrated at the Berlinale, and she’s still only getting started. The Hungarian filmmaker and visual artist graduated from Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in 2013 and quickly became one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary animation, working in lush, dreamlike, often surreal imagery that follows emotional logic rather than plot. Her graduation film Symphony no. 42 was shortlisted for the Oscars, Love was nominated for Best Short at the European Film Awards, and Solar Walk won the Audi Short Film Award at Berlinale 2018 and the grand prize at Ottawa. Her films are part of the Criterion Collection, and she’s currently developing her debut feature, The Great Silence.
At Kinomural she’s showing Intermission, a deliberate departure from her usual neon-lit dreamscapes. Here she strips everything back to minimalist black-and-white lines that move to the rhythm of the music, seemingly going nowhere in particular and everywhere at once. Made after a bout of Covid-induced depression, it was her way of stepping away from character animation and intricate storyboards, and imagined, as the title suggests, as a kind of palette cleanser, an intermission you can dive deep into or simply let wash over you, carried by David Kamp’s hypnotic soundtrack.
