TRAFO

Mug shots, the informal term for police or booking photographs, show the suspected lawbreaker in a severe frontal or side view. "To mug" means "to make faces," and the noun "mug" can be defined as "fool" or "blockhead" and also "face" or "kisser," mirroring how the short film TRAFO, which focuses on the human face, is pregnant with meaning.

From the very beginning Horn´s 12-minute film oscillates between the criminal and the fool who makes faces: The countenances of three men and three women, forced into categories for the purpose of criminological classification, soon start acting up. A shriek rings out here, the tip of a tongue flashes impudently there, eyes are crossed. Whether this is farce or drama, the viewer can never be certain. The mood changes constantly. In brief shots hair´s combed in an almost tender way, teeth are brushed. But these scenes of attention and care are soon interspersed with gestures that distort faces, expose them to ridicule, do them violence. One´s laced up and decorated. Choking is followed by laughter. The clues are confusing. What´s happening here? Medical examinations? Fun? Torture? Is it consensual? Even the music leads the viewer down conflicting paths.

"The face is a portrait of the soul" in the words of Cicero, calling to mind the old ideal of making humankind´s glimmer of the divine, its dignity and greatness, visible in portraits. Horn´s pictures of faces are however far from being portraits. Dignity´s no longer a factor. The protagonists´ visages transform, turn increasingly into projection screens, sculptures. Rather than becoming simply caricatures of their selves, the human turns into an object. The more dangerous and extreme the treatment they undergo, the more the individual is diminished. The face becomes an allegory for existence.

(Katrin Feßler)

Translation: Steve Wilder

Orig. Title
TRAFO
Year
2014
Country
Austria
Duration
12 min
Director
Paul Horn
Category
Avantgarde/Arts
Orig. Language
German
Downloads
TRAFO (Image)
TRAFO (Image)
TRAFO (Image)
Credits
Director
Paul Horn
Cinematography
Didi Sommer, Sandra Fockenberger
Sound
Mirza Kebo
Production
Paul Horn
Actor/Actress
Daniel Aschwanden, Anna Schrems, Anna Scheer, Sybrig Dokter, Cornelia Böhnisch, Michael Baumgartner
Make-Up
Daniela Schibalsky
Best Boy
Fritz Erhart
Available Formats
Digital File (prores, h264) (Distribution Copy)
DCP 2K flat (Distribution Copy)
Aspect Ratio
16:9
Sound Format
stereo
Frame Rate
25 fps
Color Format
colour
Festivals (Selection)
2015
Nashville Film Festival
Wroclaw - WRO-International Media Art Biennale
Wien - VIS Vienna Independent Shorts
Weimar - back-up festival. new media in film
Paris - L'Etrange Festival
Cambridge MIT - European Short Film Festival
2016
Regensburg - Kurzfilmwoche