I saw this wonderful short film at the 2007 Palm Springs International Festival of Short films. This film at the Los Angeles Film Festival this spring won Best Animated/Experimental Short Film. This is a lavish stop motion production using animal puppets and digital compositing. Some location scenes were shot in Cuba. This is the story of Bunny, a nurse and Bear, a fighter pilot whose love and lives are torn by the outbreak of a distant, nameless, war. This film bills itself as possibly the first animated operatic short film and it probably is. Swedish Director Fredrik Emilson takes his classically trained music background into the world of film in this short that he directed, wrote, edited, photographed and even wrote the operatic score. This guy is obviously a genius who recently was chosen to compose the opening piece for the prestigious Nordic Music Festival. It took him over a year to put this 15 minute film together but even he couldn't do it all so joining him in it's production are Jonathan Edström, Andreas Franck and Leif Westerlund who were the sound team of the Academy Award nominated feature foreign film Så i himmelen (As it is in Heaven.) Performing Emilson's original score are the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Swedish Opera Chorus. People who don't like opera will enjoy this score. It's a pop friendly opera. Emilson was on hand for the Palm Springs film screening for an audience Q & A. Of the 46 short film I saw at the festival I didn't expect one from the animated category to be my festival favorite but this was. I would give it a 9.5 out of 10.
Review of Love and War
