IN-SHADOW: A Modern Odyssey - A short animated film
Today we want to share something powerful, a visual and symbolic journey into a very accurate representation of our society.
Created by Lubomir Arsov, In-Shadow: A Modern Odyssey is an animated short film that successfully presents itself as a critique of capitalist society.
It’s a visionary journey through the fragmented unconscious of the West, and with courage face the Shadow. Through Shadow into Light.
The director uses symbols and metaphors to criticise the neo-liberal paradigm of capitalist society, where lust for money and power is the foundation.
As already said, this is a journey into the unconscious, to recognise those shadows that accompany every human since birth. To break free from the hold of the shadows, individuals shouldn't keep them away from consciousness but accept their existence and face them. This concept takes inspiration from Jung's psychology of the unconscious.
The film begins with a rhythm that already suggests a sort of anxiousness, matched with the dark colours of oppression, and almost a sense of suffocation. The art and animation speak for themselves, simple, at times crude, but real.
The pace changes towards the end, when, after a raw portrayal of the fashion world, of school, and economy, the film sends a message of hope - when man and woman finally manage to break free from mental slavery, and from red and greys, colours turn blue and brighter.
“No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell.” -C.G. Jung
