Writer, painter, sculptor, film and theatre director and puppeteer Rezo Gabriadze is one of Georgia's most creative and cherished artists. Using his father's words and drawings, son Leo Gabriadze brings the great master's memoir to life in this delicate and profound animated film. Far from conventional autobiography, Rezo unfolds like a fever dream, a childhood tale that borrows from magic realism and political satire in equal measure. The horrors of the Second World War have just ended in the Soviet Union, and little Rezo's universe is filled with strange creatures—from a German prisoner to a smoking frog, a library rat, and Stalin himself. The regime's totalitarian politics are evoked with subtlety and offbeat humour, recalling the way Gabriadze's "innocent" puppet theatre always avoided censorship in his country. Nostalgia and enchantment mark the tone of this surreal fable, and history's turbulence has never been told with more sincerity. Charlotte Selb
Co-presented with Toronto Animation Arts Festival International - TAAFI.