“Dinner For Few” is a ten minute CG-animated film by EMMY award winning animation artist Nassos Vakalis. The short film depicts a sociopolitical allegory of our society in general and the Greek economic crisis as well as the economic crisis in the countries of the European South in particular.
During dinner, “the system” works like a well-oiled machine.
It solely feeds the select few who eventually, foolishly consume all the resources while the rest survive on scraps from the table. Inevitably, when the supply is depleted, the struggle for what remains leads to catastrophic change.
Sadly, the offspring of this profound transition turn out not to be a sign of hope, but the spitting image of the parents.
DINNER FOR FEW from Nassos Vakalis on Vimeo.
EMMY award winning animation artist Nassos Vakalis directed and wrote the film and the animation was produced in the United States of America and Greece with the technical and artistic collaboration of Eva Vomhoff from Germany.
“If you ask me what I hope people will take away from my film I believe is the provoking realization that every system so far created by man inevitably ends with a few eating well, while the rest struggle to survive, “Nasso Vakalis told KTG.
He added “This alone, regardless from what political angle is approached is delivering a question on the function any modern political State. Inspired by the economic recession that shook Southern Europe, Dinner for Few depicts a sociopolitical allegory of human society in this endless struggle to survive and evolve.”
About the cats on the film, Vakalis said “the cats represent the common people or whoever has no some kind of elite status in a society. In general they are the people and they are black and white because they reflect Platos chariot allegory though here are cats and not horses.”
“The film tries to be beyond politics,” Vakalis told us, he is referring to the lever of a political party, thus “the two pigs are wearing blue and red ties ( the parties ) and both at some time do receive the head position on the table but the outcome is the same since both obey the same laws that have humanity enslaved in ages.”
“The fat pis is not per definition a symbol for capitalism but more the nature of man or the “need” of man, his human nature and his greed, rather than the representation of an economic system,” the director explained when we asked about the figures on the film and their symbolism.
Vakalis focuses on the human nature and said that the hangman’s figure is “a character people can use as a joker in a deck of cards, they reflect on him whatever their own believes dictate. For me is our human nature, that kills us thus dressed like an executioner.”
He said that since his short film was made available around the world, it was very interesting to see how people try to interpret it and thus according to their own culture and history.
In China, for example, Dinner For Few was posted on a blog with 1,800 comments written about the film, each one trying to understand what the film was about, most viewed from the angle of the socialist environment these people live. Most of the commentators interpreted the film “as a statement against capitalism but in truth it is a statement against the human nature in all of us and a reminder of the circular nature of our history,” Vakalis underlined.
“Dinner For Few” is produced and funded by Nassos Vakalis and his wife Katerina Stergiopoulou.
The original music is composed by Kostas Christides and performed by the Bratislava Symphonic Orchestra.
“Dinner For Few” was inspired by the economic recession affecting South European countries like Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal.
Nassos Vakalis grew up in Greece, where his family and most of his friends still live. “Dinner For Few” not only reflects his deep concern of the social and economic developments during the crisis but also highlights the inevitable and cyclical nature of the human affairs throughout history.
Through its festival run “Dinner for few” screened at over 250 international film festivals and won 78 awards.
It was one of the 60 Animated Shorts that Qualified for the Academy Awards in 2015.
The short animated film Dinner For Few is published on KTG with permission by Nassos Vakalis.
