Variety — December 13, 2019
‘The Physics Of Sorrow’: Theodore Ushev Innovates Wax Painting Technique for Animated Short
Comprising more than 15,000 hand-painted images, Theodore Ushev’s “The Physics of Sorrow” is the first fully animated film made using encaustic hot wax painting.
“The Physics of Sorrow,” which is among animated short hopefuls this awards season, is adapted from the prizewinning novel by Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov, tracking the outlines of an unknown man’s life as he sifts through memories of circuses, bubble-gum wrappers, first crushes, army service from his youth in communist Bulgaria, and an increasingly rootless and melancholic adulthood in Canada — all while struggling to find home, family and self. The film premiered in September at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival, where it received an honorable mention for Canadian short film before going on to win the award for Canadian toon at the Ottawa Intl. Animation Film Festival and another honorable mention at the Vancouver Intl. Film Festival.
Eight years in the making, the 27-minute short, which was produced by Marc Bertrand at the National Film Board of Canada, with the participation of ARTE France, ranks as the Bulgarian-Canadian filmmaker’s most ambitious, intimate and poignant film to date. Superbly drawn and animated by Ushev (“Blind Vaysha”), each of the roughly 15,000 images in “The Physics of Sorrow” is a work of art, aptly evoking a potent portrait of a dislocated generation moving through ever-changing personal and geographic landscapes as the protagonist navigates a maze of fleeting thoughts and emotions.