Dash Shaw, Jane Samborski – Cryptozoo #Berlinale2021

March 14, 2021

Dash Shaw, Jane Samborski - Cryptozoo #Berlinale2021 fredfilmradio

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PODCAST |Chiara Nicoletti interviews Dash Shaw and Jane Samborski, director and animation director of the film Cryptozoo.

With Cryptozoo, their animation film on mythical creatures, director Dash Shaw and his wife, animation director Jane Samborski just won a special mention from the jury of the 71st Berlinale Generation section. Set in the 1970’s California the film shows us the internal contradictions of believing a Cryptozoo, could actually be a safe refuge for fantastical creatures such as the dream-devouring chimera Baku. Cryptozoo is an extraordinary and dreamlike trip through capitalism, legends, the concepts of good and bad with a perfect attention to every detail.

Cryptozoo: “C’mon babe, have some faith! There could be magic here, or a utopia! Use your imagination!” – “Utopias never work out.” The scene: California, circa 1970. While the nation’s youth practice free love and protest against the establishment and the Vietnam War, a different sort of struggle plays out underground: veterinarian Lauren Grey tracks down fantastical creatures, rescuing them from abuse and providing refuge in her Cryptozoo. Alas, the military is scheming to get its hands on the greatest cryptid of them all, the dream-devouring chimera Baku, to harness its power and destroy the dreams of the burgeoning alternative culture. In Dash Shaw’s idiosyncratic, transgressive trip, utopic visions of hero and anti-hero are put to the test. Inspired by the psychedelic underground comics of the 1960s, this story situated between lucid dream and horror trip resonates like an echo in our present day.

To discover more about the 71st edition of Berlin International Film Festival, click here.