Parasit

Fast forward. A camera rushes across Argentina´s stone desert toward a cactus and crashes headfirst through an opening into the plant´s interior. There, a view opens up of an eerie universe. Vibrating insect wings beat, swishing against one another, glistening with a toxic beauty, and wind themselves out from a plastic bottle top. Then they transform into little Sputniks with tender antennas, which rush around clanking in the heart of the cactus until we dive into one of their hollow bodies, and a tin can disappears into the spatial depths of the image.

In Nikki Schuster´s stop–motion–animation Parasit, organic and non–organic, documentary and animation engage in luminuos mutations. Billy Roisz´ experimental, smoldering soundtrack accompanies the unfolding of bizarre microcosms in the depths of trees and crevices. Sizzling, the living combines with the dead, the trash with plants, producing hybrid sculptural organisms with fantastical DNA. In this, the animation has a quasi–parasitical relationship to the documentary, grasping its formations and twisting them onward in nocturnal metamorphoses. Root–like forms proliferate in the dark, transform into long, strands of hair, and wrap themselves with smacking sounds around green, red, and yellow spiral bodies. The hair, a matter, which is equally living and dead, stands emblematically for the synthesis of the natural with the artificial: like the cells of an imaginary body, plastic rings and gear wheels float chaotically, group to bone pieces and eddies, mix together with plastic hangers and pieces of grating. In the end, green caps twist like little UFOs through the image from top to bottom, swing like garlands before a black background before fading away in the dark. Afterwards, the camera pulls hastily out of the nocturnal housing back into daylight–as though having just had a forbidden look into the backside of nature. (Alexandra Seibel)
Translation: Lisa Rosenblatt

Hybrids composed of discarded refuse, insect wings, bones, hair and plant particles germinate within the nooks and crannies of rocks, tree hollows and cactus beds. Creeping, crawling and oozing, these organic-synthetic mutants multiply and evolve, luring the viewer deep into an inner sub-cosmos. In this micro-universe the metamorphosis intensifies, until the gaze is released into the innocent daylight again.

Orig. Title
Parasit
Year
2013
Countries
Germany, Austria
Duration
8 min
Director
Nikki Schuster
Category
Animation
Orig. Language
No Dialogue
Downloads
Parasit (Image)
Parasit 02 (Image)
Parasit 04 (Image)
Credits
Director
Nikki Schuster
Music
Billy Roisz
Sound Design
Nikki Schuster
Sound Mix
Sebastian Müller
Animation
Nikki Schuster
Production
Fiesfilm
Supported by
Land Oberösterreich, bm:ukk
Available Formats
DCP 2K flat (Distribution Copy)
Aspect Ratio
16:9
Sound Format
Dolby Surround
Frame Rate
25 fps
Color Format
colour
Digital File (prores, h264) (Distribution Copy)
Aspect Ratio
16:9
Sound Format
Dolby Surround
Frame Rate
25 fps
Color Format
colour
Festivals (Selection)
2013
Graz - Diagonale, Festival des österreichischen Films
Linz - Crossing Europe Film Festival
Wroclaw - New Horizons Festival
Sao Paulo / Rio de Janeiro - Anima Mundi Animation Film Festival
Cork - IndieCork Film Festival
Buenos Aires - Cartón Animation Film Festival
Bukarest - anim'est animation film festival
Victoria - Antimatter Underground Film Festival
Denver - Int. Film Festival
Berlin - Interfilm-Festival
Wien - One Day Animation Festival
Tallinn - Animated Dreams / Black Night Film Festival
Ljubiljana Animateka - Int. Animation Film Festival
2014
Bruxelles - Festival of Cartoons & Animated Films
Wien - Tricky Women / Animationsfilmfestival
Regensburg - Kurzfilmwoche
Hong Kong - Int. Film Festival
Melbourne - MIAF International Animation Filmfestival
Zilina Fest Anca - Festival of Animated Films
Marseille - RISC Rencontres Int. Sciences et Film