GIANT

Director's statement:
Gymnastics is both acrobatics and an endurance sport. (…) I became very aware about my bodily abilities and malfunctions. Especially about the fact that humans can’t fly. (…) I am interested in how beauty is created by human. Where do our concepts of beauty come from and how do they reflect history and power? We take in a lot of visual information, values and messages through seeing. Can aesthetic experiences also affect our ideas of good and evil? (Salla Tykkä)

Curator's comment:
GIANT is a very focused and pure portrait of a place and a political history. The brilliant editing and sound design push the seemingly distant observations to a thrilling friction between dehumanization and man’s quest for beauty and grace. Not simply repeating well-known cinematic language but looking for renewal within these boundaries, as well as trying to expand the parameters of the cinematic realm. Here we can see glimpses of newer forms of cinema that will enrich the language in many ways. We were not necessarily looking for craftsmanship in the way the short was executed, but rather at the approach taken by the maker towards the story or subject matter, and the ambition to celebrate the power of the cinema in personal, thorough or witty ways. And most importantly, in an uncompromised way. (Rotterdam Jury Statement)