Vaysha, l'aveugle

This animated short, nominated for an Oscar in that category, is an interesting affair. It does not seem right to me for this meditation on a girl who sees the future with one eye and the past with the other, to win, but I have old-fashioned tastes.

It is a very interesting effort, mostly for the quality of its visuals, which resemble wood-cuts rather than other, more conventional drawings or computer animation. This is clearly intended to offer some visual gloss on the subject, which is about how difficult it is to see only the past and the future, but never to exist in the moment, I have no idea how it does so, but it is a pleasant change from the more usual techniques.

This is one of two Canadian nominees (the other being Pear Cider and Cigarettes). It's sort of like a very, very dark modern fairy tale. It's a strange tale about a little girl born with two very strange eyes. Through one, she can only see the past and with the other she can only see the future. So, for example, when she sees an adult, they appear in one eye as a small child and in the other incredibly elderly and feeble. As to what all this means, well I was left wondering this when the film ended.

As far as the animation goes, you'll either love it or hate it and it strongly accentuated the darkness of the story. It certainly is NOT a pretty film to watch and many of the animations are a bit horrifying to watch. Like too many shorts this year, I did wonder why it was nominated as well as feeling a bit depressed after seeing it.

I think "Blind Vaysha" is very unlikely to take home the Oscar, as "Piper" is much more of a crowd pleaser and it s sweet little film...without the dark edges the other nominees all see to have in spades!

Blind Vaysha (2016)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

This short was nominated for Oscar's Best Animated Short and it's certainly much darker than the other nominees. This one here tells the story of Vaysha, a young girl who was born with two very different eyes. Her left eye can only see the past while her right eye can only see the future. This here puts her into a dilemma on how to live the rest of her life.

I'm not going to say BLIND VAYSHA was a bad movie but I didn't think it was worthy of an Oscar-nomination. It certainly wasn't better than the other nominated movies but at the same time I can respect it for trying to do something a tad bit different. This really plays out like a dark fairy tale and the animation is quite dark itself. I thought the film was visually impressive and the story had some interesting ideas but I just didn't think it ever really came to life. I also didn't care too much for the narration, which lasted throughout the picture.

I think this is possibly the most accurate cinematic depiction of that Shakespearian adage "...this way madness lies..." that I've seen. The eponymous girl is born with perfect 20/20 vision. The thing is - the first 20 can only see into the past, the other into the future. She cannot see her present nor can she choose the subject matter of what she does see. Perhaps she could just shut one eye? Is it better to have the certainly of the past or is it better to anticipate the excitement of the future? Maybe it is better just to close both eyes? I loved the style of animation here - it reminded me a little at the start of Gauguin's brushwork, and the philosophy of the choices she faces is presented to us by way of a little audience participation at the conclusion that does make one think. It's an intriguing eight minutes worth a look.

Beautiful short should win the oscar but the academy prefer disney kid stuff without any message as piper short, this is amazing, i can relate ti the girl in this video tbh i always seeing anything except the present that's why i like this bulgarian short; it made me cry and remember better times as a child in my poor neighborhood

Im definitely watching this every year for the rest of my life, this is probably the last thing i will ever saw, thank god that this short exist in this hard current times that we are living, goodbay and thank god for me, congratulations to the director im definitely a fan of him now.