The Great Starvation

Short film and kinetic installation, 2024

Diploma project

The hybrid work entitled The Great Starvation has two components: a screen performance and a multimedia kinetic installation.

The moving image element relies on the characteristics of screen performance, which consciously uses the visual potentials offered by the camera. It uses plans, image settings and viewpoints, the result of compositional solutions that cannot be achieved in the case of stage performances.

At the same time - unlike traditional film works - the masterpiece does not use dialogues. It is a purely visual narrative that unfolds by appealing to the expressive power of body language, gestures, and mimicry.

The Great Starvation is a consciously ironic critique of society. It highlights the absurdity of the consumer society, which constantly encourages accumulation and consumption, as well as the frequent and drastic withdrawal of consumption in order to preserve our health and weight, or to seek alternatives in order to achieve an idealized (based on false hypotheses and illusions) quality of life.

Cast
Director and writer: Bettina Calla Ernst
Supervisor: József Tasnádi
DOP: András Csizmazia and Krisztián Gyuricza-Polónyi
Editor: Bettina Calla Ernst
Food stylists: Zsuzsi Matók and Eszter Mariann Fodor
Colorist: András Csizmazia
Actors: Máté Asbót, Nóra Barna, Marcell Hovan, Dóra Lilla Illés, Boglárka Kis, László Kőrösi, Violetta Vigh
Sound: Ákos Zajzon
Stylist: Panka Óvári
Makeup artists: Rebecca Pesthy and Hajni Szakács
Special thanks: Kata Juhász, Dániel Cseh.