Chinese artist and filmmaker Sun Xun never expected “The Magic Atlas” to become the first animated film selected for Tokyo International Film Festival competition.
“I never thought of ‘The Magic Atlas’ as an animated film. To me, it brings together many art forms. Animation is just a label we use for its form. I’m glad the people at TIFF understood the effort I put into it,” Sun says Diversity.
Ten years in the making, “Magic Atlas” is set in Luocha, a coal mining empire where flying is prohibited. The festival, held every 60 years, prevents the public from remembering the previous period. After a magician is arrested, he meets an orphan boy in prison and gives him the Atlas of Magic. The book points the child to a past that the empire is trying to erase.
The film oscillates between woodblock prints, ink painting and vibrant colours. The images often do the job that a traditional plot might tell, drawing on art and visual traditions from different periods and cultures.
Sun says the film was shaped by global events such as the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, as well as personal changes such as his conversion to Buddhism. He invested all his savings into the project. Art sales decreased when galleries closed during the pandemic. He says that in order for the film to go ahead, he has to find buyers and get a loan.
“In my own artistic way, I believe there should be an ‘all together’ moment in every creator’s life: making a defining work that takes everything in it. For me, ‘The Magic Atlas’ was that all-in moment,” he says. “I was hoping to finish it while my family was alive, before my child grew up. Unfortunately, my father passed away a year before the film was completed.”
Rather than commenting on any one event, Sun says he draws on different cultural and political influences to reflect the divisions he sees around the world. He also brought images of ancient civilizations, including pyramids, as well as mythological elements.
“The film cannot directly address reality, but it can look at it from a broader perspective. It can express how we understand the world and what we are curious about,” he says.
When asked whether movies should clearly explain their story, Sun says: “I’m actually against ‘story’. I don’t mean that movies shouldn’t have a story. I’m against movies that emphasize story for packaging and commercial purposes. As an art form, film should express a state of existence.”
Sun names Andrei Tarkovsky and the late Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr as filmmakers he admires, citing 1983’s “Nostalghia.” “They are sincere in their approach to existence. They do not just rely on imaginary narratives. In my opinion, this is the artistic form that cinema should have,” he says.
While working on “The Magic Atlas,” Sun studied Dunhuang murals, Song dynasty paintings and calligraphy, as well as images from other cultures. Asked if he’s worried some viewers will have a hard time following the film, he says: “There will always be a barrier to entry. Ten years of work naturally adds depth to the film. But I did this important work for myself. My goal was to make it happen, not to please every viewer.”
Sun said exhibitions related to “Magic Atlas” are planned in the United States and Singapore, but venues and dates have not yet been announced. He has also started a new movie called “All or Nothing”, whose Mandarin title “Fuyou” means “Mayfly”. The film will continue the world of “The Magic Atlas” by moving from the broad theme of forgetting to an individual experience of memory loss. Sun said he shot the first footage at an exhibition site in Hangzhou and hopes to complete the film within two years.