Seder-Masochism (2018)

Directed by

Nina Paley

Genre

musical play, animated film, musical film, historical film, fantasy film, comedy film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 18m

Rating

7.4 of 10 from 14 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This animated film retells stories from the Book of Exodus and the Passover Seder. It contrasts these events with the earlier worship of a Great Mother Goddess and shows how patriarchy took over. The movie uses a mix of popular and liturgical songs, plus recorded conversations with the director's father who voices the Hebrew deity.

irreverentplayfulthought-provokingsatiricalmusicalvisually inventivefast-pacedprovocative

What happens

Seder-Masochism is a 2018 American animated musical biblical comedy-drama film written, directed, produced and animated by American artist Nina Paley. The film reinterprets the Book of Exodus, especially stories associated with the Passover Seder, such as the death of the Egyptian first-born, and Moses leading the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. The film depicts these events against a backdrop of widespread worship of the Great Mother Goddess, showing the rise of patriarchy. Seder-Masochism is Paley's second feature film, following Sita Sings the Blues in 2008, an animated film loosely based on the Ramayana. In a similar fashion to her previous work, Paley mainly uses previously published music in Seder-Masochism, with popular and liturgical songs ranging from 1928 to 2018. She also draws from spoken voice recordings she made in 2011 with her father, Hiram Paley, who is placed in the role of the traditional Hebrew deity. Greg Sextro served as sound designer on the film. With Theodore Gray, Paley formed PaleGray Labs to create a method for animating embroidery, which they call "embroidermation". In Seder-Masochism, embroidered animation is the basis for one scene: "Chad Gadya". Debuting in the 2018 film festival season, Seder-Masochism was reviewed positively, with Paley's bright and satirical style compared to Monty Python and others. The film earned the Audience Award at the ANIMATOR film festival in Poland. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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