The Box Man
2002 · 5m · USA
Directed by Nirvan Mullick
Genres: animation, drama, experimental
Tones: contemplative, dark, melancholic, surreal
A wordless stop-motion adaptation of Kobo Abe's novel follows a man whose encounter with eyes watching from a cardboard box triggers a violent unraveling.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Someone spent two and a half years hand-crafting a stop-motion Kobo Abe adaptation with an 8-inch puppet — and Cannes put it in competition.
A stop-motion Kobo Abe adaptation is exactly the kind of audacious literary translation I want to applaud — Mullick channels the Quay Brothers' tactile alienation with a single 8-inch puppet. The link is dead, which I note with regret, but the project's ambition is real.
Nirvan Mullick taking 2.5 years to hand-craft an 8-inch puppet stop-motion of Kobo Abe — the labor-to-runtime ratio is the achievement. Five minutes, though the page warns the video may not be available anymore.
Festivals
- AFI FEST 2002, Audience Award — Best International Short Film
- Cannes Film Festival 2003