The Shadow of Dawn
Estonia2024animated15'International Short Competition
A young, red-haired girl spends carefree time in the forest - she plays with her shadow, picks up herbs and fixes torn branches. Her walk in nature is interrupted by a slumberjack who, unexpectedly, confesses his love to her, but the girl rejects his advances. Soon after, she encounters Beast with a crow’s head and Shadow sets off to fight for her life. Not only does she have to defeat Beast, but also discovers her dark secret. This magic story about love, rejection and hurt feelings is a stop-motion puppet animation with impressive stage design and costume details.
- directed by
- Q&A guestOlga Stalev
Stop motion director, animator, and prop maker, born in 1989. After graduating school in 2008, she began her studies in Estonian Academy of Arts, where she earned her bachelor's degree in Animation. During her study she also was an Erasmus student in FAMU, Czech republic. In 2012 she started her stop motion career at Nukufilm studio, first as prop- and puppet maker and then as animator. In early 2018 she was invited to work on “Vanamehe Film” feature project at BOP animation studio. Since 2016, Olga has been teaching stop motion animation at Estonian Academy of Arts.
- cinematography
- Urmas Jõemees
- script
- Olga Stalev
- animated by
- Olga Stalev, Ida Lepparu
- cast
- Maarja Mitt-Pitchen, Kaie Mihkelson, Helgur Roshental, Tanel Kadalipp
- music
- Mari Kalkun
- sound
- Anna-Maria Jams, Joonas Taimla, Tanel Kadalipp
- editing
- Urmas Jõemees, Olga Stalev
- production
- Edina Csüllog (Hvitolg)
- Photo
- Trailer