Synopsis

We are all immigrants. Some leave cities or countries, all of us leave our childhoods. Like the mythic Minotaur, we roam our personal labyrinths, carrying nothing but a suitcase of memories, a portable time capsule filled with assorted mementoes from a past we can no longer reach. The first fully animated film made using the encaustic-painting technique, The Physics of Sorrow was inspired by the novel by Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov. It tracks the outlines of an unknown man’s life as he sifts through memories of circuses, bubble-gum wrappers, first crushes, army service in communist Bulgaria, and an increasingly rootless and melancholic adulthood in Canada – all the while struggling to find home, family and self.

Theodore Ushev

Theodore Ushev (1968, Kyustendil, Bulgaria) first made a name as a poster and graphic designer, before moving to Montreal in 1999. In the past 15 years, he has worked for the National Film Board of Canada. His creative biography contains more than 15 films, which brought him over 200 international awards, including an Oscar nomination for best animated short film for Blind Vaysha in 2017 and making it into the short list for the same award for The Physics of Sorrow in 2019. Physics of Sorrow won the Grand Prize - Crystal of Annecy in 2020.