Mann im Mond

This is a short film that can be seen on a DVD of award-winning shorts from around the world from the Film Movement Series. For several years now, Film Movement has been bringing out a yearly compilation of shorts in place of their usual monthly feature film release. This is from the January, 2008 collection.

The man on the moon from the title is a clay man who lives in a cool little house on the moon and he's quite lonely, as he'd apparently the only living creature on this desolate sphere. When he sees an approaching ship (one of the Apollo missions), he becomes excited and sets the table in anticipation of guests! How it all ends is rather clever and cute--so I'll leave that for you to see and not spoil it.

The main character and his world is highly reminiscent of a ground-breaking computer game called "Clayman". Clayman was a very clever puzzle game from the mid-1990s and it's been all but forgotten today, but the modeling and sense of humor of the game is highly reminiscent of MANN IM MOND.

I also loved the film's sense of humor and the clever touches that pulled me into this creature's world. It was amazing how quickly you cared about him--even though it was only a short world. Cute stuff and one of the better short films in the collection.

It reminds, in same measure, the legend of the rabbit on the moon , "The little prince" and "The desert of Tatars". Touching and profound delicate story, beautiful animation, precise portrait of the routine and long expectations. And few drops of dark humor. A beautiful sad film about a too long expectation and the fall of the precious moment of the meet.