The Musician

Persian art and music provide the inspiration for this tale of lost love, rendered in detailed cutout animation and shadow puppetry by Iranian director Reza Riahi that could easily sit alongside the similarly accomplished work of Michel Ocelot and Lotte Reiniger. The film has been recently listed as one of the ten on the Oscar shortlist, from which five will be chosen for the final vote.

Though it is dialogue-free, memories whisper through the story like the wind we see rustling a weeping willow at key moments. The year is 1279, six decades after the Mongol invasion of Persia and a Mongol emperor is enjoying a feast day. Among those in attendance is a blind musician, whose stringed kamancheh provides a melancholy soundtrack for the action, scored with emotion by . Iranian musician Saba Alizadeh. Dangling from the instrument is an earring, which holds a second tale - from years ago, when love was high and he still had his sight - which we will also see unfold.

Riahi is interested in the interaction between our past and our present - a theme that itself never grows old - and beautifully intertwines the two as glasses raised in the banquet hall mirror the swords lifted to strike in the past. Scenes play out in both time periods almost like a call and response, each gaining weight by its juxtaposition. There's an opulence to the banqueting scenes, which draw on the style of Persian miniature artwork in their detail, filled with deep reds and golds, which offer contrast to the simpler shadow puppetry that we see in flashback to a dark moment in the past.

What happens after the completion of "a conquest" is a question that is as relevant today as it has ever been - though nobody utters a word in Riahi's film, actions speak volumes. Riahi previously worked as art director of The Breadwinner but it's likely we'll be seeing his name taking a lot more top billing going forwards.