How does the graphic gesture in animated film manifest itself, what specific eco-system are we talking about when we refer to line and movement? Aline Helmcke invites us to think about drawing for film and simultaneously celebrates the sensual act of drawing: whether with light or sand-like material or classic drawing tools, on paper or blank film, in associative scribbles or structuring lines. And so lines turn into insects, a whole flock of dots, a pattern of lines, an industrial landscape … only to dissolve back into lines once more. Fleetingly, imagery and meaning emerge from simple elements. The intuition of the drawing process and the planning exercise of drawn animation, the restlessly wondering human eye and the unrelenting camera eye freezing time, they all whir around each other in this intelligent and luscious cinematic essay.

André Eckardt