Because There Was No Nail in the Forge

A story of a little boy nicknamed Travka who got lost for a whole day.

This little-seen and little-discussed film combines animation with self-reflexive, live action segments to embody the anarchic, satiric spirit of the poet and playwright Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893-1930). The film also showcases Sergei Yuktevich's fondness for formal experimentation. It is nominally adapted from Mayakovsky's play "The Bedbug" and his screenplay "Forget All About the Fireplace."

The film is put on the motives of a well-known story of Nikolay Karamzin about the tragic love of the poor girl to the rich young man.

Loosely inspired in some plays from the Spanish author Federico Garcia Lorca("The Puppet Play of Don Cristóbal", "The Billy-Club Puppets" and "Doña Rosita the Spinster"), this short does an incredibly job capturing all the poetry from those literary works, adding a new level of beauty to them by the art of puppetry and stop-motion animation. "Cabaret" starts as a bizarre comedy filled with many extravagances, then, it quickly evolves into a heart-breaking (But at the same time, captivating) tragedy, filled with a breathtaking lyricism that leads into a memorable ending, having some of the most beautiful lines that have been ever spoken in any animated film.

An old man who took in and nursed a wounded crane is visited by a young, beautifully dressed woman.

Two parents put their child in his crib for the night and leave the room. The child starts crying, and the Cat comes into the room to keep him company. The child grabs her tail, and the Cat angrily reminds him that they agreed a thousand years ago that he would not do that. Upon seeing that the child doesn't remember, the Cat sighs and decides to tell him the story from the beginning. The story starts when the planet was young and life on Earth is starting with dinosaurs.

Short film by Ideya Garanina

Volume 3 (1979-1985): "Tale of Tales", "Hunt", "Cabaret", "Last Hunt", "There Was a Dog", "Travels of an Ant", "Lion and Bull", "Wolf and Calf", "Old Stair", "King's Sandwich", "About Sidorov Vova".

Volume 2 (1969-1978): "Ballerina on the Boat", "Seasons", "Armoire", "The Battle of Kerzhenets", "Butterfly", "Island", "Fox and Rabbit", "The Heron and the Crane", "Hedgehog in the Fog", "Crane's Feathers", "Firing Range" Contact