After the award-winning Cathedral (Katedra, 2002), Fallen Art (Sztuka Spadania) is Tomasz Baginski's second computer-animated short film, that deals with blind obedience to orders in the military and people being used for an outrageous art project. The film features four distinct characters plus several soldiers.
The main story took place on a military base. In the Short film, first, we see an officer standing on a high stage offering medal to the injured soldier, but the twist is after giving them the medal officer pushes them to their death on the ground & even after seeing the soldier death other soldiers are still coming to receive the medal. After their death, there is a photographer assigned who captures the dead body and sent them to another higher official to process the picture. This is the whole plot of the short.
The animation style, character design, and dubbing are oddly comic and quirky but hats off to the music composer Fanfare Ciocarlia his music helped the audience to stay engaged with the film. The film was made in 2004 but the animation is astonishing for that time. Character and environment design are worth noting, as well as the particularly remarkable work on lighting, which is a pleasure to watch. All these elements have helped Fallen Art age really well as a 3D-animated film that isn't chained to the technological limitations of the time it was made in.
The absurd dance was the selling point for me, during the dance the background music, camera moving blinking of the light, etc everything related to the scene mesmerized me a lot. This dance portrayed the cruelty of powerful people and how they enjoy other demises.
If you watch the film for the first time you might think it's just a quirky film that doesn't make any sense but if you watch it carefully you'll find what it tried to show,
For me it shows how pointless war is, in war higher officials doesn't face any problem but mere soldier suffers a lot, they join the army for medals, recognition, and money but in return, most of them die or loses their body parts & because of this their family also suffers a lot. This masterpiece also tells us how some individuals can decide about life and death, and what the army is. Soldiers are just a tool to achieve the goal of the art called WAR.
It perfectly shows how war is created for the amusement of the ones that control the world and this is done with real people's lives.
What makes Fallen Art work so well? Strong, caustic dark humor that exposes the psychology of characters who drive wars forward with complete disregard for human lives, plenty of surprises, a marked contrast between staging and narrative, excellent aesthetic work, and fun music, all contribute to a short that presents a bold subject with a comedic approach.
