I was lucky enough to stumble upon Playing God, and having now watched this strange yet beautifully done stop-motion animation, I felt compelled to share it.
The 9-minute short from Matteo Burani and Arianna Gheller took seven years to make, and goes all-in with the idea of creating self-aware beings out of clay – something I’d never considered myself, as an artist who occasionally also makes things out of clay.
What makes this short so powerful is the amount of feeling and emotion in it. You feel compelled to see what happens to this being who’s been almost violently slapped together, and then abandoned with a horde of seemingly gormless others.
The concept is unsettling… it actually makes me want to send this to North of the Border on YouTube, because he creates many “tiny nerdy things” and the idea of some of those things being self aware just tickles me.
The film will only be streaming until 11th January, so this is a limited time thing. Enjoy it while you can.
There’s also a really cool ‘making of’ featurette I’ve linked below, too. Check it out if you have time!
What do you think of Playing God and the concepts explored in the film? Comment below and start the conversation.
Ready for more? Teleport to discover another randomly selected short film.
