Tower Bawher

{{italic title}} {{Infobox film | name = Tower Bawher | image = | caption = | director = Theodore Ushev | producer = | writer = | music = Georgy Sviridov ("Time, Forward!") | released = {{Film date|2005}} | runtime = 3 minutes, 46 seconds | country = Canada | language = }} '''''Tower Bawher''''' is a 2005 constructivist-style abstract animated short by Theodore Ushev, set to the musical composition "Time, Forward!" by Russian composer Georgy Sviridov.<ref name="AWN"/>

The film's title is an allusion to Tatlin's Tower, an unbuilt structure conceived by Vladimir Tatlin as a tribute to the glory of the proletariat. Drawing on the tower's design, the film seems to build toward a utopian goal, until the grandiose, futuristic forms abruptly tumble. In ''Tower Bawher'', Ushev celebrates constructivist art while also critiquing the use of art in the service of ideology. The film contains visual references to such Soviet era artists as Dziga Vertov, the Stenberg brothers, Alexander Rodchenko, El Lissitzky and Lyubov Popova.<ref name="coll"/>

The 3 minute 46 second film was made over a five-week period in Montreal, beginning in April 2005, when Ushev ran into problems working on was to have been his first animated short with the National Film Board of Canada, the children's film ''Tzaritza''. The filmmaker had a strong connection with the Sviridov musical piece, having heard it as a child in Bulgaria as the theme music for the Soviet state TV evening news.<ref name="AWN"/>

Despite difficulties in securing the music rights to the Sviridov composition, which had been in dispute in Russian civil court at the time, ''Tower Bawher'' was completed in time for its world premiere at the Ottawa International Animation Festival in September 2005.<ref name="AWN">{{cite news|url=http://www.awn.com/articles/profiles/animators-unearthed-itower-bawheri-theodore-ushev/page/2%2C1|title=Animators Unearthed: Tower Bawher by Theodore Ushev|last=Robinson|first=Chris|authorlink=Chris Robinson (writer)|date=February 2, 2006|work=Animation World Network|accessdate=30 December 2009|archive-date=27 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120127024609/http://www.awn.com/articles/profiles/animators-unearthed-itower-bawheri-theodore-ushev/page/2,1|url-status=live}}</ref> Awards for the film included the prize for best non-narrative film at I Castelli Animati festival and the award for best abstract film at the London International Animation Festival.<ref name="coll">{{cite web|url=http://www.onf-nfb.gc.ca/eng/collection/film/?id=53204|title=Tower Bawher|work=Collection|publisher=National Film Board of Canada|accessdate=30 December 2009}}</ref>

The film is similar in style to Ushev's 2008 film, ''Drux Flux'', both utilizing Soviet constructivist imagery and Russian classical music score.<ref name="Robinson">{{cite book|last=Robinson|first=Chris|title=Animators Unearthed: A Guide to the Best of Contemporary Animation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oozKz8Hu4xIC&q=Drux+Flux&pg=PA130|date=4 June 2010|publisher=Continuum|isbn=978-0826429568|page=130}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *{{IMDb title|0814785}} *[http://www.nfb.ca/film/tower_bawher Watch ''Tower Bawher'' at NFB.ca]

Category:Constructivism (art) Category:Visual music Category:Films directed by Theodore Ushev Category:National Film Board of Canada animated short films Category:Animated films without speech Category:2005 animated short films Category:Abstract animation Category:2000s Canadian animated films Category:2005 Canadian films