"Ruka" and "Surogat"

Surogat

Ruka

These two short films are animated European political satires, each with their own method of animation, story-telling, humour, but very similar themes. They both differ in many ways, and I'm going to compare and contrast each of these films.

Ruka, by Jiri Trnka, appears to have a rather high budget, as opposed to Surogat. There are numerous sets, props, and special effects used in this short, it's also longer (18 mins). Surogat, by Dusan Vukotic and Zagreb Film, is noticeably cheap looking, with very simplistic designs, art, and animation; he backgrounds are quite bland and sometimes non-existent, of course this is mainly because this works with the style the directors were going for. The colours in Ruka are rather bland (mostly tinted with brown) with some low key lighting, and this is to give the short a very bleak tone and dark atmosphere. There are more bright colours towards the end, with a harsh blue background, and bright red as well. Both the colours and the lighting in Surogat are bright, in comparison to Ruka, with a lot of vibrancy which is suitable for the brighter and more comical tone of this short. 

They both share the same political context, of course Ruka is more about Trnka's own personal experiences, being hassled by the Czech Republic to make propaganda for them, much like how the character in the film is told to make a statue of the hand instead of a pot for his plant. In Surogat, the protagonist seems to be a satirical representation of the leaders at the time, who built the country and feels like they deserve to get what they want, and this doesn't really become clear until the final scene when he creates the roads. It could also represent how men have shaped the standard of beauty for women, for example, he makes one woman then creates a different woman because he finds that one more attractive.

Both shorts manage to work well with each of their soundtracks. The pacing in Ruka is very close to the soundtrack, generally there is no music, but during the dramatic scenes the soundtrack is nothing but an anonymous drum beat, to add a grim and tense atmosphere. In Surogat, the music is quite bouncy and upbeat, much like the tone. It also mostly consists of the main character humming a tune. Both Ruka and Surogat intended on portraying the government honestly using surrealism so that they wouldn't catch on. This is due to the fact that it was illegal to negatively portray the government in media at the time. Surogat intended on doing that whilst also bringing some comic relief to its audiences. They both share the same target audience, although considering the tone and content in Surogat, you could say that that could be seen as more of a family film.