The Raft

Crossing the river, going to a gig, a music band meets a ferryman – a violin virtuoso, but he won’t join them without his ferry. Some years later, during a concert on the top of a building – the ferryman joins them on their stage – RAFT. The concert reaches it's highlight! A thunderstorm starts! Enchanted trance! Water reaches knees! FLOOD!!! Awakened from the music enthusiasm, the band remains saved – captured in their own scenography – desperate. They start searching for answers on the radio – SILENCE. So they continue playing their MUSIC – surrounded with nothing but endless water.

Director’s statement
The main inspiration, character design and music developed from my personal, especially musical experiences with my band members. Today, I am still an animator and after seven professional films and other projects, it feels like nothing has changed – I still play music, travel and stay in hotels and bars with that same colourful bunch of people – or animated characters, as I see them in a way. After fifteen years, I am ready to make them alive again. The story is authentic, growing from the hearts of these musicians, somewhere between the sounds in the silence of performing solitude. The stage becomes the raft; the empty space the audience; the past becomes the present; the future is nowhere in sight! In the journey through animation techniques, we will try to emphasize the depth of the moment of the world revolving in another reality, destruction or a change in the viewing angle. What is real, and which animation techniques are we talking about? Our goal will be for the viewers to ask themselves this question.