By Werner Busch. Say goodbye. Bid farewell to everything that has grown dear to you. Let go! Out of loneliness comes the will to hold on, to shepherd, to care, to love. And one day, it's raining, it's snowing, the sun is shining, everything will be over. Just a thin thread, laborously woven over the years, is the last, tiny, fleeting connection to everything your life once meant. It can break away any time now. Your multi-armed monster will fly into the endless void of space.

Director Juan de Dios Marfil studied piano in Madrid before being academically trained in animation film in Prague, in order to follow in the footsteps of the towering Czech cinematic giant Jan Švankmajer with his thesis film HOMELAND. Without any dialogue, funny and dark, Marfil's film is taking a stroll on the edge of meaning. A complete and distinct synopsis is impossible, and still HOMELAND is fascinatingly clear in its themes.

The rough pencil drawings, served on raw paper, gives the film a visual materiality that poses a wonderful counterweight to the transcendental topics. The brilliant soundtrack isn't just background music for some sequences but defines the film itself, weaving, just like the protagonist, on a painfully real dream. Music can easily lift you up. My child has arms. It can fly.

Links

• HOMELAND (CZ 2009. Juan de Dios Marfil)
• The Images, the Music – An interview with Juan de Dios Marfil
• Prague, Open City of Cinema – Werner Busch about the Czech film market