The Epic of Gilgamesh, or This Unnameable Little Broom (1985)

Original title

This Unnameable Little Broom

Directed by

Timothy Quay, Stephen Quay, Keith Griffiths, Weiser Quay

Genre

animation, fantasy, horror, mystery

Country

United Kingdom

Runtime

11 min

Rating

6.2 of 10 from 25 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This stop motion short film is a loose adaptation of the first tablet of the ancient Epic of Gilgamesh. It uses puppets and a surreal visual style to tell a fragmented story. The film was originally planned as a pilot for a larger TV project.

whimsicalsurrealplayfuldreamlikeeccentricambiguousatmosphericoblique

What happens

Little Songs of the Chief Officer of Hunar Louse, or This Unnameable Little Broom, Being a Largely Disguised Reduction of the Epic of Gilgamesh, Tableau II (aka This Unnameable Little Broom) is a 1985 stop motion short film by the Brothers Quay. The film is loosely based on the first tablet of Epic of Gilgamesh. Boasting the longest title in the Quays' entire output, this 1985 film is generally known as This Unnameable Little Broom. The short began life as a proposed hour-long program Channel 4 exploring aspects of the ancient Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the oldest known surviving works of literature, which would combine puppet animation, dance sequences, and live-action documentary elements. However, Channel Four were unsure about the project, and only agreed to fund a short animated sequence as a pilot - which is all that was ultimately made. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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