''Tower Bawher'' is a 2005 constructivist-style abstract

animated short Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animati ...

by Theodore Ushev, set to the

musical composition Musical composition can refer to an Originality, original piece or work of music, either Human voice, vocal or Musical instrument, instrumental, the musical form, structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new pie ...

Time, Forward! ''Time, Forward!'' (, ''Vremya, vperyod!'') is a 1965 Soviet part industrial drama film directed by Sofiya Milkina and Mikhail Schweitzer based on the 1932 novel and a screenplay by Valentin Kataev. The film was produced by Mosfilm, a unit of ...

" by

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

composer

Georgy Sviridov Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov (; 16 December 1915 – 6 January 1998) was a Soviet and Russian composer. He is most widely known for his choral music, strongly influenced by the traditional chant of the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as his orch ...

. The film's title is an allusion to

Tatlin's Tower Tatlinʼs Tower, or the project for the Monument to the Third International (1919–20), Honour, H. and Fleming, J. (2009) ''A World History of Art''. 7th edn. London: Laurence King Publishing, p. 819. was a design for a grand monumental buildin ...

, an unbuilt structure conceived by

Vladimir Tatlin Vladimir Yevgrafovich Tatlin (; ; – 31 May 1953) was a Russian and Soviet painter, architect, and stage-designer. Tatlin achieved fame as the architect who designed The Monument to the Third International, more commonly known as Tatlin's Tower, ...

as a tribute to the glory of the

proletariat The proletariat (; ) is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian or a . Marxist ph ...

. Drawing on the tower's design, the film seems to build toward a utopian goal, until the grandiose, futuristic forms abruptly tumble. In ''Tower Bawher'', Ushev celebrates constructivist art while also critiquing the use of art in the service of ideology. The film contains visual references to such Soviet era artists as

Dziga Vertov Dziga Vertov (born David Abelevich Kaufman; – 12 February 1954) was a Soviet pioneer documentary film and newsreel director, as well as a cinema theorist. His filming practices and theories influenced the cinéma vérité style of documentary ...

, the Stenberg brothers,

Alexander Rodchenko Aleksander Mikhailovich Rodchenko (; – 3 December 1956) was a Russian and Soviet artist, sculptor, photographer, and graphic designer. He was one of the founders of constructivism and Russian design; he was married to the artist Varvara Stepa ...

El Lissitzky El Lissitzky (, born Lazar Markovich Lissitzky , ; – 30 December 1941), was a Soviet Jewish artist, active as a painter, illustrator, designer, printmaker, photographer, and architect. He was an important figure of the Russian avant-garde, h ...

and

Lyubov Popova Lyubov Sergeyevna Popova (; April 24, 1889 – May 25, 1924) was a Russian-Soviet avant-garde artist, Painting, painter and designer. Early life Popova was born in Ivanovskoye District, Ivanovskoe, near Moscow, to the wealthy family of Sergei ...

. The 3 minute 46 second film was made over a five-week period in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, beginning in April 2005, when Ushev ran into problems working on was to have been his first animated short with the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; ) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and altern ...

, the children's film '' Tzaritza''. The filmmaker had a strong connection with the Sviridov musical piece, having heard it as a child in

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

as the

theme music Theme music is a musical composition which is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at ...

for the Soviet state TV evening news. Despite difficulties in securing the music rights to the Sviridov composition, which had been in dispute in Russian civil court at the time, ''Tower Bawher'' was completed in time for its world premiere at the

Ottawa International Animation Festival The Ottawa International Animation Festival is an annual animated film and media festival that takes place in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The OIAF was founded in 1975, with the first festival held from August 10 to 15 in 1976. Initially organized b ...

in September 2005. Awards for the film included the prize for best non-narrative film at I Castelli Animati festival and the award for best abstract film at the

London International Animation Festival The London International Animation Festival is an annual animation festival founded in 2003 that takes place at the Barbican Centre in London in November and December.

. The film is similar in style to Ushev's 2008 film, '' Drux Flux'', both utilizing Soviet constructivist imagery and Russian classical music score.

References

External links

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Watch ''Tower Bawher'' at NFB.ca
Constructivism (art) Visual music Films directed by Theodore Ushev National Film Board of Canada animated short films Animated films without speech 2005 animated short films Abstract animation 2000s Canadian animated films {{short-animation-film-stub