Tea Party

They say, well, actually, a fish says, well, in truth a fish says that they say, anyway, "you can't toe the same river twice but since [the fish has] no toes [he] really can't say." Pondering, no pun intended, that observation, we get a story. A story of stork, who used to throw the best tea parties - here though it's more about the wine. Far too much wine, in fact, almost holiday-by-mistake quantities.

It's a rambling drunk - literally so, as stork goes a-wandering - as he does he finds himself asking "Why are things so complicated when they should be simple?", and it's a reasonable question. One Tea Party does well with, because it is so simple - beautifully so, indeed, wonderful to look at - watercolourish backgrounds, a simple intimation of a tree in the mist, a will'o'the wisp that takes our protagonist a bit too far into the woods, a bit too far into the darkness.

Through it the rain falls - heavier and heavier, until there's a flood, until that river brings us back. Tea is made a consumable by diluting, patience, and here water and time and Vitali Sichinava's talent have combined to make something refreshing, enjoyable. At times it's like a naturalist's notebook given life, at others a visual equivalent of the jazzy soundtrack - there's Mingus and Reinhardt among others, creating something that manages the bleat of despair and a bubbly breeziness. The beauty of it is something to behold, a sort of mediated photorealistish. The sound too is beautifully done, all the way from the musical quasi-interludes to a vital alarm-clock. The character design is good too, the stork's desperate plunge into the bottle isn't quite Aesopean, but one could argue that he only truly makes progress when he lets go. Admittedly, that fable was more about avarice than drunken self-pity, but it still works.

Short film audiences may already be aware of Vitali, but in another guise - Will Anderson provided assistance to this production, and in Anderson's own The Making Of Longbird it was Vitali who provided the voice. The stork's proportions are a little different, but judging by audience reaction something good has been hatched here too.