‘The 21′ Director Tod Polson
Cartoon Brew is placing the highlight on animated quick movies which have certified for the 2025 Oscars.
On this installment, we’re taking a look at The 21 from American filmmaker Tod Polson. The quick earned its Oscars qualification via theatrical exhibition.
A brief movie honoring the 21 Coptic males murdered by ISIS in Libya in 2015, The 21 is crafted within the fashion of Coptic iconography by a world crew of greater than 70 artists from greater than 24 nations. Mixing live-action footage with animation, the movie serves as a robust tribute to the martyrs and a vibrant message towards obscurantism.
Cartoon Brew: How has Neo-Coptic iconography impressed you and your crew, and the way has this international group of artists been impressed by it to create this movie?
Tod Polson: The aim of an icon is to assist in devotion and contemplation, performing as a window into the divine. In the identical manner, I needed every body of the movie to offer the viewers a better connection to the story of the martyrs, their religion, and all the things they skilled. To encourage contemplation. Stylistically, I leaned into the sturdy clear shapes of Neo-Coptic iconography. Many icons are painted on wooden or plaster, so it was necessary to maintain a hand-crafted aesthetic within the textures and linework.
Most icons are composed vertically, symbolizing the connection between God and humanity. So, I selected to border most of The 21 within the outdated sq. Academy ratio (4:3). Within the last sequence of the movie the side ratio modifications to 16:9 to accommodate the clips of live-action footage from the unique ISIS video. A lot of the colour work was impressed by conventional iconography. Early on, Nikola Saric developed a refined shade palette for me, as my preliminary idea work have been overly saturated. All through the movie, I used gold to suggest the presence of God, guaranteeing that even within the darkest moments, delicate glints of gold illuminated the design. Blue symbolized the heavenly realm, whereas black conveyed the essence of evil. Every shade was rigorously chosen due to its conventional which means, and to replicate and improve the emotional depth of the story. Consistent with the custom of iconography, many compositions within the movie are grounded in divine proportions, incorporating rules such because the golden part, rabatment, and dynamic symmetry to bolster the religious and symbolic resonance of the visuals. There are numerous different elements of the movie linked to the divine. Even when audiences don’t perceive all these symbols, I hope they sense that there’s extra occurring than meets the attention.
What was it about this story or idea that related with you and compelled you to direct the movie?
The video launched by ISIS in 2015, depicting the horrific murders of 21 Coptic Christians, was surprising and deeply disturbing. The religion these males displayed within the face of demise was profoundly transferring. But, it was the response of their households and their exceptional message of forgiveness that went straight to my coronary heart. Regardless of their overwhelming grief, the households rejected hatred and vengeance. As an alternative, they prayed for the extremists, hoping that some would possibly come to know the love of Christ. Later, as I sat with the households of the martyrs in Egypt, seeing each ache and sincerity of their eyes, 21 blood stained orange jumpsuits in an adjoining room, their message of forgiveness grew to become much more highly effective. It was a life-changing second.
This identical testimony impressed producers Mandi Hart and Mark Rogers to pursue the thought of constructing a movie concerning the martyrs. They have been capable of elevate a lot of the funds via donations and crowdfunding. On the time they approached me to direct, I had not too long ago left my place as a inventive director at Cartoon Saloon to concentrate on extra private movies exploring religion like The 21. The whole lot simply appeared to fall into place. Although this was simply one among numerous violent acts within the area, the martyrs’ story shines a light-weight on a message of forgiveness that feels particularly pressing in our more and more fractured world. The 21 doesn’t glorify violence; moderately, it exposes its absurdity.
What did you be taught via the expertise of constructing this movie, both production-wise, filmmaking-wise, creatively, or about the subject material?
Creating The 21 has been one of many greatest adventures of my life. Throughout manufacturing, I had the privilege of assembly unimaginable folks from around the globe — journalists, iconographers, animators, theologians, and historians. After I started my analysis, I had solely a handful of associates in Egypt and knew little or no about Egyptian tradition, not to mention Coptic Christianity. My understanding of iconography was primary — definitely not sufficient to interact with it in any significant manner. Though I’m a follower of Christ, I’ve made each effort to inform the story of The 21 from a impartial perspective. I relied closely on accounts gathered via leaders of the Coptic church, interviews with members of the family of the martyrs who have been in Libya on the time of the kidnappings, testimony from imprisoned ISIS guards, and reviews from Libyan police and journalists embedded with the Libyan military. Throughout the manufacturing of the movie I’ve discovered how darkish hate may be. However the overwhelming love I’ve skilled from most everybody I’ve come into contact with has far overshadowed that.
Are you able to describe the way you developed your visible method to the movie, why you settled on this fashion/method, and the way this formed the ultimate work?
From the start, it was clear that The 21 can be a second movie. Coptic Egyptians have a protracted custom of martyrdom, and creating icons of these martyrs. An icon-inspired design method appeared one of the best and solely actual alternative for the quick. Icons by Nikola Saric, Edmon Kamel, and Tony Rezk, have been created shortly after the ISIS video was launched, and had already grow to be highly effective symbols within the Coptic group by the point I began engaged on the movie. Thankfully all three artists have been keen to talk into the fashion of the movie. Edmon had truly painted most of the icons within the martyrs’ residence church in Higher Egypt and knew the households of the lads. He and his spouse Marina grew to become an excellent bridge to the households there.
Artists working in Lviv, Ukraine, have lengthy impressed me. Lyuba Yatskiv, Ivanka Demchuk, Khrystyna Kvyk, Sergii Radkevych, Kostko Markovych, and so forth. are all doing new and thrilling issues with very conventional themes. Their work could be very private, being representational and emotional on the identical time. I took the identical method whereas growing the look of The 21, soaking in several elements of iconography and filtering it via my very own worldview. The look of the movie was additionally closely impressed by artwork actions reminiscent of Vorticism, Precisionism, Futurism, and Cubism. For essentially the most half these actions rejected sentimentality and traditionalism, and encompassed concepts of fascism. I used to be attempting to undertaking the feelings of the characters via a tough, shattered, damaged world.
