MODEL BEHAVIOUR

Year: 2004
UK: The Independent Cinema Office
Directors: Pjotr Sapegin; Adam Elliot
Countries: Norway / UK
Language: Norwegian (English subtitles)
UK: 75 mins
UK Certificate: PG contains mild violence, nudity and sex references
UK Release Date: 23 July 2004

Synopsis

Why is all the best animation in our cinemas aimed at children? It was this question that led Catharine des Forges at the Independent Cinema Office to put together MODEL BEHAVIOUR, a programme of animation for grown-ups.

MODEL BEHAVIOUR features the work of two of the most exciting filmmakers currently working in model animation - Pjotr Sapegin and 2004 Academy Award-winner Adam Elliot. Both directors are winners of numerous international awards, yet are hardly know in the UK.

Born in Russia, Pjotr Sapegin began work as a theatre designer, before he started to make films in Norway. Without any formal training, he makes his own experiments with claymation, bringing his own twisted sense of humour to his re-worked fairy tales. In his moving and poignant films, Sapegin brings to life a salt controlling troll, a rat seeking romance and a snail who longs for a dog as a pet.

Adam Elliot is renowned as Australia's 'crown prince of plasticine'. Using hand-made models, Elliot creates a humorous, but melancholic universe of real people struggling with very real problems. The appeal of Elliot's films is universal. Infused with a balance of humour and pathos, his simple and endearing characters touch a nerve with people from all walks of life. Elliot's HARVIE KRUMPET, the story of an ordinary man seemingly cursed with bad luck, and narrated by Geoffrey Rush, was the winner of Best Animated Short at the 2004 Academy Awards.