Jiri Trnka is a Czech illustrator, puppetmaker, filmaker and animator. He specializes in handcrafter puppet making and his craftsmanship is pretty remarkable. His short Ruka (the hand) is both is surreal as it is thought provoking. The shorts main conflict is between our protagonist who is an unnamed character within his house and a giant hand that appears from a box in his home. The conflict escalates with the hand imposing himself on the protagonist in his own home. It ends with the hand putting him in a cage. The metaphor might be a cautionary tale on people being forced to live a certain way because of their governments. Just like in the animation everything seemed fine but in the end freedom was lost. The metaphor may seem heavy handed but it’s execution of the message it was sending was heard loud and clear.
ANIM223 - HISTORY OF ANIMATION - FALL 2019 