A man and a woman meet, in a world of courtly formalities and crinoline. Immediately they fall in love. But there is much more here than meets the eye, for behind all the lace the "woman" is a mantis-like machine designed to kill...
"Maska" is a seriously unsettling animation short, set in an imaginary world both technologically advanced and societally backwards. Although based on a story by the great Stanislaw Lem, it feels more like a mix of dark fantasy and horror than straight SF. The plot, which is told through the eyes of the "woman", examines themes such as identity, destiny, conscience and (lack of) self-determination. And of course it is also a dark riff on all of those fairytales in which the hero and heroine fall in love after exchanging but one look... The unmasked assassin, some sort of cross between a scorpion and a mantis, looks particularly unnerving.
Do read the Stanislaw Lem story, it is well worth your time. But then nearly all of his work is fascinating. Look up "Terminus", one of the Pilot Pirx tales, which, in my opinion, still stands as one of the most perfect horror stories ever written.
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