NFB and Marta Pajek join forces for new film “Impossible Figures and other stories I”
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) has signed a new coproduction agreement with acclaimed filmmaker Marta Pajek, director of such films as the 2011 animated short Snępowina, and will be releasing her latest project Impossible Figures and other stories I next year.
Concluding a triptych of animated short films produced by Animoon that began with Impossible Figures and other stories II and Impossible Figures and other stories III, this final entry similarly uses hand-drawn animation in 3D environments dealing with the concept of an “impossible” figure, “one that can be drawn according to all the rules of perspective but cannot be constructed in reality”.
Impossible Figures and other stories I is the first and—paradoxically—the final part of the triptych. The city, which is its subject, grows not only in space but, most importantly, in time. With all consequences. When trying to grasp a subject too big for one to imagine, it was essential to become a part of a small but wonderful community of NFB animators and directors, ‘lost’ in the utopian corridors of this epic institution.
-Marta Pajek (Director, Impossible Figures and other stories I)
Born in 1982 in Kielce, Poland, Marta Pajek studied under Jerzy Kucia at Kraków’s Academy of Fine Arts, graduating with an Animated Film diploma in 2005 . During this time Marta also studied at the Turku Arts Academy where she was taught by Priit Pärn and made her first animated short film Po Jabłkach as part of a student exchange programme.
Her previous animated shorts Snępowina (Sleepincord) and the first two entries in the Impossible Figures triptych have been screened internationally and won multiple awards, with Impossible Figures and other stories III having premiered at Cannes earlier this year. Her other recent work includes animating the festival trailer for the 2019 edition of Tricky Women/Tricky Realities.
When we embarked on this journey to make the trilogy Impossible Figures and other stories I with director Marta Pajek, we couldn’t have imagined how far it would take us. Having received 43 awards for the two films already produced, we started production on the final film. This last film is very special, not only because it concludes all the themes explored in the trilogy, but also because it made our first collaboration with the NFB possible. Collaboration with such a renowned studio is a truly unique experience for us. With its deep understanding of the subject matter and incredibly creative approach to the artistic challenges of the project, the NFB makes a perfect partner. Films produced by the NFB make up the history of world animation—it is our greatest privilege to become a part of this history.
-Piotr Szczepanowicz (Producer, Animoon)
For the NFB, working with Marta Pajek has been stimulating and challenging; she’s a cinematic force, and it’s exciting for everyone. Marta spent some months with us in our historical facility just before our move to downtown Montreal, and it was serendipity to be working on a film about the end of a civilization whilst an end of an era was, in real life, happening all around us.
-Michael Fukushima (Executive Producer, NFB English Program Animation Studio)
Impossible Figures and other stories I is produced by Piotr Szczepanowicz and Grzegorz Wacławek of Animoon (Poland) and Maral Mohammadian of the NFB (Canada) with a planned released of Spring 2020