Cannes Selects Daria Kashcheeva’s ‘Electra’ for Official Competition
Skwigly
Electra by Daria Kashcheeva (Image source: Miyu Distribution ©)
The Cannes Film Festival has revealed the next part of the Official selection. The competition section La Cinef (formerly La Cinéfondation) will screen the highly anticipated film Electra by Daria Kashcheeva, produced by Zuzana Křivková and Martin Vandas from Czech MAUR film and co-produced with FAMU, Artichoke (Slovakia) and Papy3D (France).
Daria Kashcheeva, director and student of the Master’s programme at the Department of Animation at FAMU, made her mark on the world animation scene with her short film Daughter. The intimate story about the relationship between a daughter and her father has picked up dozens of awards at international festivals, including the Student Academy Award and an Oscar nomination.
For her graduate work, the director drew inspiration from the Greek mythological figure Electra, whom she translated into today’s world in her vision. The protagonist of the film tries to define herself in relation to her mother and tries to understand her mixed feelings towards her father. She gradually isolates herself in her world and builds a relationship with her body and sexuality.
I was inspired to structure the narrative this way by psychotherapy. During sessions, clients revolve around their memories of traumatic experiences. They jump from the past to the present, the images and memories change. By combining the pixilation animation technique together with live-action scenes, I was able to illustrate this narrative mosaic.
– explains Daria Kashcheeva
Thanks to the success of Daughter, the filming of the student film Electra turned into a Czech-SlovakFrench co-production, with the resulting film being 26 minutes long – unusual in animation. “A significant part of the shooting took place over 95 shooting days in the main studio of FAMU Studio in Prague,” adds Zuzana Křivková from the Czech production company MAUR film, which is the main producer. “Thanks to a wide international co-production, complex animation puppets in the style of lifesize Barbie dolls were created in France, and in Slovakia our co-producer Artichoke provided, among other things, the entire visual post-production,” added producer Martin Vandas.
Electra by Daria Kashcheeva (Image source: Miyu Distribution ©)
Festival distribution and sales is handled by French company Miyu Distribution, starting with the world premiere in May in Cannes and continuing to the Official selection of the biggest Animation Film Festival in Annecy. Electra was financially supported by the Czech Film Fund, the Pilsen Region, the FILMTALENT ZLÍN Endowment Fund, ARTE France, Pictanovo, images in Hauts-de-France, Hauts-de-France region, Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée CNC, Procirep and Angoa and Slovak Audiovisual Fund.