Shorts blown to smithereens (1)

On top of a number of feature films, AleKino! asked me to work on several shorts, some of which proved incredibly appealing.

Birth by Signe Baumane, here in her other funny animation, gave a fast-paced, light-hearted overview of the horrors a pregnant teenager has to go through in a backward community where all other women have to offer in terms of support are stories of personal hurt and disappointment. In less than a quarter of an hour the girl protagonist is dragged through her unexpected pregnancy, put down by her complaining mother, disillusioned, hysterical aunts and unsympathetic doctor, until she gives birth to a hellish, little boy who instantly has her enslaved. Neatly animated, the film ironically overblows the teenage fears and adult phobias towards babies and relationships that their arrival shapes. It may be a tad too gruesome for a very young audience and a degree of distance is necessary not to freak out at the sight of balooning pregnant bellies or zombie fetuses in medical charts.

Lots of excellent vocab:
1. noisy with cicadas, outside cicadas buzzed,
2. to tear at the seams,
3. to blow/smash a stereotype to smithereens (little pieces),
4. septic = ropiejący, a septic wound,
5. She pressed a baby to her bosom.
6. Immediately after birth, nurses give a baby a rinse,
7. delivery = poród,
8. "I know something, you don't know" kind of laugh,
9. the umbilical cord,
10. a pause of comprehension.

I let myself be enchanted by Aphrodite's Farm, a sweet New Zealand fable about a family milk farm somewhere at the foothills of Mount Taranaki (Egmont), whose dairy products are not only flavoursome, but also blessed with the magical qualities of prolonging life, improving health and enhancing talent. The bliss of this Maori household comes to an abrupt end when the head of the family dies of a heart attack, leaving his wife and three beautiful dauhthers helpless. To make matters worse, their plight gets compunded when Friday, a helping hand they hired to lift the farm from recession, takes a shining, fully requited, to one of the daughters. Little do they know that the milk potion, which their farm earns a living from, relies on a constellation of three virgin daughters for its extraordinary powers. Magical milk goes sour, its properties gone, Friday is banished and the farm declines further. Only to be reborn in 9 months' time when a newborn virgin repairs the ancient circle the ranch is based on.

1. Kia ora is a Maori greeting and one of key expressions that made their way to modern English, especially in New Zealand,
2. The farm was short-handed,
3. Horses refused to lift a hoof,
4. Absence makes the heart grow fonder,
5. foolhardy = szaleńczy, nierozstropny,
6. impetuos = zapalczywy, porywczy,
7. a lot of hard yakka = work,
8. the bloodline = pochodzenie
9. heal the infirm and cure the lame,
10. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say...
11. to get a big agro = get angry or hostile for no reason.