11.01.24, 20:30, Junk head (2017)

Junk Head, director Takahide Hori's magnum opus, consists of no less than 140,000 stop motion images. Besides directing, Hori also handled editing, cinematography, lighting, animation, puppets, voices, sound, music and ... everything, really.

This assembled animated gem tells the story of a world where humans live longer but are infertile and thus threatened with extinction. In search of a solution to this dwindling population, a human scientist plunges into the underground realms inhabited by the Magarins, mutants whose work keeps the upper city running. After an accident wipes out his physical form, our wandering protagonist's mind is transferred into a series of mechanical guises, blurring the difference between his humanity and the clone workers.

Making use of clutter, Hori conjured countless visual fantasies for Junk Head. Endless staircases, corridors and wells made of scraps of iron and other rubbish create an atmosphere best defined as Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927) meets Francis Bacon. Be warned: watch the film at your own risk of loose ends: Indeed, according to Hori, Junk Head is the first part of a trilogy yet to be completed.