NFB launch Get Animated 2018 with Ehsan Gharib’s ‘Deyzangeroo’
Since its initial launch over a decade ago, the National Film Board of Canada have each year selected specific films from their catalogue of new animation work to be released online in the lead-up to International Animation Day (October 28th). With prior editions of Get Animated featuring work by Michèle Cournoyer, Paul Driessen, Franck Dion, Janet Perlman, Theodore Ushev, Claire Blanchet, and Chris Landreth among others, for this year’s edition the NFB have premiered Deyzangeroo, a stunning first professional film from Iranian-Canadian filmmaker Ehsan Gharib.
Many cultures have viewed the lunar eclipse as a powerful reminder of the Day of Judgment. People chant prayers, sing songs and recite poetry, all in an effort to communicate with nature and the cosmic forces in the sky. They ask for forgiveness or understanding, as they yearn for what they fear is lost.
Deyzangeroo is one such ritual, performed in the Iranian port city of Bushehr, on the shores of the Persian Gulf. The distinctive percussive music, rhythmic chants and tribal dances—an echo of the city’s colonial rule by the British and Portuguese, and the African slaves that followed—are performed with reverence, fear and magic.
The ritual is believed to ward off evil spirits and take back the moon. And it works every time…
Produced by Maral Mohammadian and featuring music by composer and virtuoso percussionist Habib Meftah Bushehri, Ehsan’s four-minute film embodies this ritual through the use of combining hand-painted animation with trick and time-lapse photography.
Having previously produced four student films during his studies in Tehran at the Soroush Film School, in Ontario at Sheridan College and in Montreal at Concordia University, Ehsan Gharib’s work as an artist/cineaste spans design, photography, animation and filmmaking, having previously worked in a variety of roles on several award-winning animated shorts, including Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre’s Oscar.
Keep up to speed with Get Animated and the work of the Film Board at nfb.ca