Going under or a lonely island life – there is not exactly a surfeit of options in this Polish village by the sea. The community functions, but social intercourse is rough, alcohol present. Archaic-seeming rituals and social patterns are handed down from the old to the young men. Winter envelops the village in white silence which every now and then betrays its deceptive appearance in small things. At midnight on Christmas Eve the voices of the dead and tortured souls ring out. Anka lives in the middle of this. The young woman takes hits, gets up, struggles through with her love of Jesus.

“Zima” portrays a state of suspension with occasional rollercoaster rides and builds up to tremendous emotional power. Colours are rare in the black and white drawings of the winter landscape and the dark houses, but when they appear, they lend great intensity to the events. Scenes of daily routines and village life are associatively interwoven both on the sound and graphic level. They burst with excess and expressive design, transforming into mystical dream images.

In 2043, humanity launches a spaceship called Zoopticon to send a greeting to distant galaxies. Lightyears later, the once proud – loaded with valuable cultural artefacts and lots of hope, after all – ambassador’s spirits sink in the infinite expanse. Loneliness leads to a blundering suicide attempt which jolts the spaceship’s body awake, whereupon the genetic material of five animals from five continents stored in petri dishes unexpectedly comes to life.

Jon Frickey, Sandra Trostel and Thies Mynther brush the science fiction classic “2001” against the grain. Their Zoopticon, a benevolent relative of Stanley Kubrick’s supercomputer HAL 9000, takes a surprising route on its odyssey through space. Their extraordinarily stylish animation starts with a moving monologue of the sensitive protagonist and finds its perfect orbit as a grandiose opera gradually begins to unfold – complete with soulful drama, brightly coloured radiant pop charm and tongue-in-cheek cathartic confidence.