© Aenigma 2017 . Created by Steficon
Α STEREOSCOPIC FILM BY ANTONIS NTOUSSIAS & ARIS FATOUROS
INSPIRED BY THE PAINTINGS OF THEODOROS PANTALEON

Film

CHARACTERISTICS - FACTS

Animation
Technique: 3D Computer Graphic
Production year: 2016
Production country: Greece
Color
Duration: 10' 18΄΄
Language: No dialogue
Aspect Ratio: 1:1,85
DCP 2K – HD
Worldwide rights: Steficon
Sales & festival contact: Vassilis Konstandopoulos
aenigma.3d.shortfilm@gmail.com

SHORT SUMMARY

A 3D requiem to Form, Feminine-Goddess, eternal Eve, Art. From idealization and sacred worship to delectation and insemination, to transformation and reproduction, to deterioration and decay, to desecration and vandalizing, to condemnation and subjugation, to the fall into timeless erebus. To the dream of regeneration.

EXTENDED SUMMARY

A 3D requiem to Form, Feminine Goddess, eternal Eve, Art. From idealization and sacred worship to delectation and insemination, to transformation and reproduction, to deterioration and decay, to desecration and vandalizing, to condemnation and subjugation, to the fall into timeless erebus. To the vision of regeneration. It is a field ruled by the poetic codes of painting, escaping, daydreaming, introspection, coherent association, insight, ambiguity, intuition and an overbearing surrealistic call for inner expression, emancipation of spiritual forces and the tearing down of any dividing screen between conscious and subconscious, between dream and reality.

Credits

Directed by Antonis Ntoussias & Aris Fatouros
Screenplay Antonis Ntoussias & Aris Fatouros
Music – Sound Design Marios Aristopoulos
Vocalists Anna Linardou, Tassos Apostolou
Art Direction- Αnimation- Editing Antonis Ntoussias
Assistant Αnimator Nadia Zervakou
Mixing Kostas Varimpopiotis
Production Michael Sarantinos / Steficon
Executive Producer Maria Kontogianni
Creative Producer Aris Fatouros
Co – producers Christos Gartaganis, Panos Bisdas / Authorwave,
Kyriakos Chatzimichailides / T – short
Financial Support Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT), Greek Film Center (GFC)
With the kind support of Ioannis F. Kostopoulos Foundation
Powered by Plaisio
Sales & Festival co-ordination Vassilis Konstandopoulos
Official Airline Sponsor Aegean Airlines
With the support of Alliance for Greece (Symmahia gia tin Ellada)
With the support of ASIFA HELLAS

PRODUCERS / COPRODUCERS

producers producers

Sponsors

costopoulos foundation plaisio
WITH THE SUPPORT OF
aegean greek animation symmaxia giatin ellada

Awards & Nominations

awards

2017 Cartoon Club (Rimini, Italy) – Cartoon Cub award Best International Short Animation

awards

2017 Greek Film Academy Awards - “Iris” award for Best Animation film of 2016

awards

2016 National short film festival in Drama - Special Mention of Artistic and Technical Achievement

awards

2016 International short film festival in Drama - Best Animation Award

Syros, Greece – Best Greek speaking film of international competition

awards

2017 Annecy International animated film festival (France) - Official competition - International Premiere

2017 Encounters short film festival (Bristol, UK) – Official Competition (UK Premiere)

Ιnterfilm 2017 short film festival (Berlin, Germany) – Official Competition

(Seoul, Korea) – Official Competition - Asian Premiere

Goias, Brasil – Official Competition - South American Premiere

2017 Split Film Festival (Split, Croatia) – Official Competition (Croatian Premiere)

2017 Balkanima European animated film festival (Belgrade, Serbia) – European Panorama (Serbian Premiere)

2017 Fest Curtas Belo Horizonte film festival (Belo Horizonte, Brasil) – Official Competition

2017 Festival Filmlets (Bandalona, Spain) – Official Competition (Spanish Premiere)

linoleum

2017 Linoleum festival of contemporary animation and media art (Kiev, Ukraine) – Official Competition (Ukrainian Premiere)

cinemadelarte

2017 Festival Cinema Del’ Arte (Milan, Italy) – Official Competition

pacificmeridian1

2017 Pacific Meridian film festival (Vladivostok, Russia) - In the open (Russian Premiere)

otranto_film_fund_festival

2017 Festival film fund of Otranto (Otranto Italy) – Official competition

ANIMATOU

2017 Animatou international animation film festival (Geneve, Switzerland) – Official competition (Swiss premiere)

SEVILLE

2017 Festival De Sevillia (Seville, Spain) – Short Matters!

ANIMEST

2017 Anim’ est international animation film festival (Bucharest, Romania) – Trippy animation night (Romanian Premiere)

BANJALUKA

2017 Banja Luka international animation festival (Banja Luka, Bosnia – Herzgovina) – Official competition (Bosnian Premiere)

CINANIMA

2017 Cinanima animation festival (Espinho, Portugal) – International Panorama (Portuguese Premiere)

awards

2017 Wiesbaden Animation Wochenende (Wiesbanden, Germany) – Official Competition (German Premiere)

KURZFUILMKONSTANZE

2017 Konstanze Kurz Film Spiele (Konstanze, Germany) – Official Competition

reanimania

Reanimania (Yerevan, Armenia) – Official Competition

Reviews

The jewel of the crown was by far the fabulous Greek production Aenigma , sophisticated tribute to painter Theodoros Pantaleon and to the golden times of one of the most important and fascinating moments of twentieth century European Art –Surrealism. Amazing both in terms of production and stylistic refinement, this 3D animation is not only strongly visually appealing but also intellectually rewarding.

This film quite simply blew us all away! It was a visual feast yet it also achieved a remarkable level of emotional depth as it made the paintings of Theodoros Pantaleon come alive; always moving and expanding our horizons… we found ourselves delighted from our own various vantage points as only a great film can do. Behind it all was a powerful historical story of the subjection of women.

It the sorcery of the film that captures inextricably the viewer, arousing a flow of associations, thrills and new enigmas.

We are rarely happy to see such a cinematographic feat (and not only in Greece), charged with modern therapeutic poetry and ancient Greek mist. Aris dear, this is your superb film which will stay in history. We are not able to see often a work in which intention, conception, inspiration, content, style, execution and certainty coincide, without any kind of shortfall. Your film may be of “short duration”, but it looks like covering miles and miles, jumping over the mountains, despite Aristotle’s’ line in “Poetics” that something like that is not proper. Bravo!

The day I watched this film, my aesthetics changed. I faced an enigma to solve: What is superior, the aesthetic or the technique? The film is perfect aesthetically as well as technically.

I have been six decades in Greek cinema and I have never watched anything better! This is not an enigma, it is a paradigm.

The film explores the correlation between cinema and visual arts thoroughly. It is the first time that such a perfect result is succeeded, at least in Greece.

A happy occasion, with four artists working together successfully.

It is a really surprising experience! The film calls us to get near it and to lose ourselves in shapes and colors which can not be found around us, existing only inside the hearts of people.

That this film is a masterpiece is not a secret. It can travel Greece abroad.

It is a really unique cinematic experience that I want to share with the spectators of Danaos cinema.

Directors’ note

The ten-minute long surrealistic 3D AENIGMA originated from the cinematic outfall of fine painting and essays to portrait how a par excellence conjectural motion picture stirs emotion and thrills. We’re altogether delving deep into the uncharted domain of conjectural dramaturgy, where exploration preconditions some serious experimentation, inspiration and luck. It is a field ruled by the poetic codes of painting, escaping, daydreaming, introspection, coherent association, insight, ambiguity, intuition and an overbearing surrealistic call for inner expression, emancipation of spiritual forces and the complete bringing down of any dividing screen between conscious and subconscious, between dream and reality.

ANTONIS NTOUSSIAS - Biography
ARIS FATOUROS - Biography

AFTERIMAGE BY ARIS FATOUROS

IN THE PLACE OF A SCRIPT

Chaos
of colours and shades
the swaying wings of an angel
awaking of
the Maiden
in the garden of dreams
chimerical birds
and Siamese creatures
hybrids of matter and life
in utopian entanglement
fruits of passion
and luscious ornaments
ethereal apparel
carnivorous flowers
impetuous phalluses
and occult vaginas
inseminating the muse
the ideal
Figure
of timeless Eve

intoxicating fragrances
and magic spells
sublime sounds and chants
phones and phonemes
of some incoherent tongue
petrified words
praising the blasphemous goddess
Art and the clones
fragile reflections
upon heavenly mirrors
inverted images
on the pupil of the eye
desolate scenery
bloodstained rugs
dying rattle
castrated bodies
ripped umbilical cords
of time and memory
weeping, fiendishly mourning
in awe and horror
the rifts of the mask
the decay of beauty
the suspended downfall
in the sacred amnesia
of the eternal water
alchemic dream
fusion element
entropy explosion
in the Mind’s resonator

IN THE PLACE OF A SYNOPSIS

ode
to the reproductive circle
of the Figure
daughter of chaos
fiendishly moulded
through the barren fertility
of unnatural union
between organic with inorganic
fauna with flora
in honour of the feminine archetype
carving of time
holy memorial erecting
with sepulchral ornaments
a downfall
in the novel space
of perpetual dreaming

Contact

CONTACT LIST

Sales & festivals contact Vassilis Konstandopoulos aenigma.3d.shortfilm@gmail.com +30 6973092235
Production Steficon - Michael Sarantinos msarantinos@steficon.gr +30 210 6754413
Director – Screenwriter – Animator – Art Director – Editor Antonis Ntoussias adonisdouss@yahoo.com
Director – Screenwriter – Creative Producer Aris Fatouros fatourosaris@hotmail.com
Original music – Sound Design Marios Aristopoulos msoundtracks@gmail.com
Inspired by the paintings of Theodoros Pantaleon