Phi 1.618
A dystopian fairy-tale, all too true at its philosophical core: a new nation of eternal, biologically perfect humans, the bio-titans, are preparing to leave Earth forever, onboard a colossal spaceship. In this utopian reality, two unlikely heroes, Gargara and Krypton, attempt to fight the inevitable, to turn history around once more – and to instil a sense of love and togetherness once more in the world.
The title refers to the golden ratio, the perfectly stale sense of self and the world that the bio-titans embody. About to colonise the Cosmos, they cannot tolerate any deviations – above all any feelings, any senses of being human. In this bold futurist take on totalitarianism, the key to turning the world around is a book that completely contradicts the written history of the bio-titans. A book that even becomes alive…
Theodore Ushev, born in 1968, is a master of international animation, with over 200 awards and an Oscar nomination under his belt. He approaches real-life-cinema with a radical graphic sense and combines acting and animation. The result is as fascinating as sterile thinking and moves slowly to come back alive on screen – culminating in an explosive finale.
Constantly exploring the relationship between art and power in earlier works, Ushev presents a truly idiosyncratic vision in his first live-action-film.
Christoph Gröner
Theodore Ushev earned a master's degree in graphic and poster design at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia in 1995. He taught there for several years before moving to Canada in 1999. He works in multimedia, illustration, animation and has exhibited his posters in Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Japan, Denmark and Russia. His digital animation films have been selected by many festivals, including Annecy, Ottawa, Sundance, Toronto, Montreal, Valladolid, Rio de Janeiro, Dresden, Tampere and Leipzig. Theodore has since 2003 worked regularly in the Animation and Youth Studio at the National Film Board of Canada.
Filmography
Phi 1.618 (2022)