Łódź Made Puppets for Autism Related Film “Lola and the Sound Piano” Ready for Production
Skwigly
The largest have no more than several dozen centimetres, but they have just ended their journey to France where they will now begin their great film adventure. Puppets produced in Łódź are about to star in “Lola and the Sound Piano” film co-produced by MOMAKIN and directed by Augusto Zanovello. Animation tells the story of Lola, older sister of Simon – a boy on the autism spectrum – eager to help her brother communicate with his surroundings. For this purpose, she constructs an exceptional machine.
“Lola and the Sound Piano” is a brilliant tale about the power of love, defeating difficulties and barriers – the social ones, too. Lola is a teenager learning to play trumpet and she is sometimes overwhelmed by her younger brother’s behaviour. When a child psychiatrist explains to her what the autism spectrum is, Lola decides to gain his attention and find a way to communicate with him.
– We desire to create a project that will make young viewers reflect on the people around them in a poetic and metaphorical way. Indifference and even rejection and misunderstanding that people on the autism spectrum can suffer is an excuse for a conversation about inclusion and living in our common world. We tell the story of siblings that want to find a way to mutual understanding – movie’s director Augusto Zanovello explains, and emphasises that in wider context the film talks about overall difficulties that we as people have while communicating with each other.
Characters for Augusto Zanovello’s animation were created in Łódź, Poland, but they are now in France where movie production takes place. Team responsible for creation of nearly 30 puppets is the one that stood behind successes of such projects as „Isle of Dogs” directed by Wes Anderson and Oscar awarded „Peter & the Wolf” by Suzie Templeton. Puppets of Lola, Simon and other characters were created by Dariusz Kalita, Agnieszka Mikołajczyk, Agnieszka Smolarek, Piotr Knabe, Anna Szcześniak, Beata Jarmuż-Socha and Marta Mikołajczyk.
Puppet actors were designed and crafted in a way to be able to act in as many takes as possible. It was facilitated by using modern and created by a fully Polish team of inventors animation puppets armature system, developed by MOMAKIN in cooperation with designer Dariusz Kalita and Polish component providers.
Łódź is famous for its excellent specialists creating animation puppets. From Łódź workshops puppets go to movie sets all around the world. Lola and the Sound Piano” project is so special also thanks to usage of our armatures allowing animators on movie sets to increase mobility of the puppets and making them last longer. Their particular elements can be removed and replaced without any harm to the rest of the puppet.
Katarzyna Gromadzka, from MOMAKIN, executive producer of the film
Puppets went straight from Łódź to French Valencia. This is also where props made in Wrocław Audiovisual Technology Centre will arrive.
Film’s director Augusto Zanovello studied in Fine Arts School in Brazillian Belo Horizonte. In 1985 he moved to France where he worked in various animation studios as animator and storyboard author. He also works as screenwriter for cinema and TV. He directed a few Tv series and short films, such as the highly awarded „Women’s Letters”.
Producers are French Folimage and Komadoli. Co-producers are MOMAKIN, Audiovisual Technology Centre CeTa in Wrocław, EC1 Łódź – City of Culture and Swiss studio Nadasdy.