3 years ago

Isolation

12th edition of Anibar Animation Festival 

Thanks to the pandemic, the world has found out what happens when it’s impossible to travel. Kosovars already knew. We are experts in isolation due to our movement restrictions. Which means that we are also great dreamers. We are ready to break free this year at the Anibar Animation Festival. That’s why, the 12th edition of the Anibar Animation Festival will be dedicated to isolation. And that is a beautiful paradox.

Isolation can be good. During the pandemic, quarantine can be necessary. And even in other times, each of us knows those moments when we need to be alone, to find peace with ourselves and the world. But also: focus, concentration, truth. The essence. Isolation is also the natural state of the animator. She locks herself inside her studio for weeks and months. Animation can be a very lonely business. But in the end, her art will fly. It will break down barriers in society. It will cross national borders as if they don’t exist. And it will connect viewers across the world.

Isolation can also mean darkness. Now that strangers are more than ever seen as a threat, isolation can morph into xenophobia, segregation and intolerance. Our isolation has been a wake-up call to get serious about the issue we are facing inside the walls of our homes, as well as the borders of our country. To realize how vulnerable we are. And how vulnerable our planet is.

This is the kind of isolation Anibar will not accept. Our festival is about mingling – of images, cultures, languages and ideas. It’s about freedom. The freedom to live, love and let each other be. Everything about Anibar is the opposite of isolation: we bring people together, we screen our films in the open air, we show art without boundaries. And we like to seduce and/or provoke those people who choose to isolate themselves inside one rigid idea, one impatient faith, on exclusionary ideology.

The 12th edition of the festival will salute both the real solitude and claustrophobia we experience with isolation. The festival will also celebrate our dreams. Our imagination. 

Join us in (de)isolation days starting from 23rd until the 30th of July!

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