Balablok (1972) – Bretislav Pojar’s animated parody of human nature

Director, animator, and puppeteer Bretislav Pojar explores human fallibility though simple paper cutout shapes in Balablok (1972). A masterful piece of wordless storytelling, the stop motion short film won the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or du court métrage in 1973. From the National Film Board of Canada:

Here is an animated replay of the human comedy as amusing in its perception as in the way it caricatures humanity’s propensity to resort to violence rather than to reason. The whole arena of conflict is reduced to its simplest dimensions–cubes and balls representing antagonists. Why they fight and what happens after the battle is a parody of human nature.

Watch these next: The Dot & the Line, A Romance in Lower Mathematics and Sesame Street’s Three striped balls & a polka dot ball.

Plus, more videos from the National Film Board of Canada.