Divisor
2017 · 5m · Russia
Directed by Nick Luchkiv
Genres: animation, experimental, sci-fi
Tones: contemplative, dark, surreal
A slaved humanoid whose mind is controlled from a spaceship suffers an unexpected reality shift after coming into contact with a strange substance. A trippy, mind-expanding cyberpunk vision inspired by the perception-altering wave of virtual reality.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
It's a competent VR fever dream, sure, but Luchkiv and Selfburning are basically illustrating a premise everyone's already had—the enslaved mind breaks free through digital transcendence. Watched a dozen of these at Sundance; the trippy payoff doesn't redeem the familiar skeleton underneath.
A formally assured piece of motion design—Selfburning's CGI abstraction and Pixelord's techno pulse demonstrate clear compositional control—but it reads more as a technical showcase than a film engaging with cyberpunk's actual lineage or philosophical stakes.
The decision to let the synth score *lead* the cuts rather than follow them creates this hypnotic rhythm where you can't tell if you're watching the music or listening to the image, and that single structural choice transforms what could've been a generic mind-expansion riff into something genuinely disorienting.
Reviews
A masterfully animated short film that shows a dark vision of mind shifting with its unexpected consequences.
A trippy sci-fi mind-expanding cyberpunk film inspired by the perception altering wave of virtual reality devices.