Chinese artist and filmmaker Sun Xun never expected “Magic Atlas” to make history — but his decade-in-the-making animated feature has become the first animated film ever selected for the Tokyo International Film Festival’s main competition. “I never thought of ‘Magic Atlas’ as an animated film,” Sun tells Variety. “To me, it brings together many art forms. Animation is simply the label we use for its form.”
“Magic Atlas” (Credits: A NEW DAWN Film Partners)
A 10-Year Handcrafted All-In Bet
The film is set in Luocha, a coal mining empire where flying is prohibited, where a festival held every 60 years prevents the public from remembering the previous period. After a magician is arrested, he meets an orphan boy in prison and passes him the Atlas of Magic — a story told through a handmade blend of woodblock prints, ink painting and vibrant color. Sun calls the film his “all-in moment”: “making a defining work that takes everything in it.”
The production was shaped by global events — the pandemic, the war in Ukraine — and personal upheaval, including his conversion to Buddhism and his father’s death a year before completion. He names Andrei Tarkovsky and Béla Tarr among the filmmakers he admires.
What’s Next for ‘Magic Atlas’
Exhibitions tied to the film are planned in the United States and Singapore, and Sun has already begun a follow-up film, “All or Nothing” (“Fuyou,” meaning “Mayfly”), continuing the world of “Magic Atlas” by shifting from the broad theme of forgetting to an individual experience of memory loss. The 39th TIFF runs through November 4, with 15 films vying for the Tokyo Grand Prix.
Source: Variety — read the full story there.
