Labyrinth (EOTWS)

End Of The Week Shorts #11 extract: Labyrinth  (1963)

Labyrinth is a surrealist short from Jan Lenica, a significant artist who changed the face of Polish animation in the 60s. 

With an incredibly unique style, this film seemingly explores freedom and tyranny as it follows an angelic figure, a suited man with wings, into a city where he confronts evil to no avail and later witnesses puerile and lewd spectacles before being captured, his mind infected, and then destroyed. This short has been compared to the Icarus myth, but is clearly a reversal; instead of flying too high, our figure flies too low, only to be consumed by darkness, leaving this narrative a pessimistic critique of charity and good intentions. The manner in which this idea is captured through the aesthetics is quite penetrating and so is something I'd certainly recommend.