Eva Pedroza: Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1982, she is a multi-disciplinary artist working at the interface of film and fine art. She studied at the Universidad Nacional de las Artes in Buenos Aires and the Berlin University of the Arts. Her work has featured in various exhibitions including, in Berlin, at the Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, the Literaturhaus Berlin and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt. From 2013 to 2017, she received a scholarship from the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.
Fanny Sorgo: The writer and director was born in Korneuburg, Austria in 1993 and grew up in Vienna. Between 2012 and 2016, she studied dramatic writing at the Berlin University of the Arts where she also took a master’s in narrative film from 2016 to 2018. Having successfully completed both degrees, she has worked internationally as a transdisciplinary artist in text, film, music and performance, including being commissioned to write a libretto for the Deutsche Oper Berlin. In 2023, she released her first tracks as a musician as well as being awarded a drama scholarship by the City of Vienna.
1. What was your starting point for “Tako Tsubo”?
Eva: My starting point for Tako Tsubo began with collaborating with Fanny Sorgo. When she showed me the script, it was clear to me that I wanted to animate the film and direct it along with her. My thoughts and my other works resonated well with her texts, so the process felt quite organic from the outset.
Fanny: My starting point for Tako Tsubo was already in 2015. At a writers residency in a monastery in France, I wrote the poem that is now a part of Tako Tsubo, the monologue of the heart.
2. Do you have a favorite moment in the film? Which one and why this one?
Eva: The shot of Ham holding his heart in front of himself originated as a joke with Fanny; it wasn’t initially scripted but emerged from our collaboration. This moment concentrates much of the film’s humor, combined with its dark tone, representing the atmosphere of the entire film. That’s what makes it meaningful to me.
Fanny: I have to say that I really love all the shots, since I am a big fan of Eva Pedroza’s paintings in general…BUT if I have to choose one, it would be the shot of the smoker without lungs and Ham sharing a cigarette at the blood lake. To me, their calm and somewhat tender encounter in the midst of cruelty and hopelessness is a funny grand finale, the peak of poetry and absurd humor, representative of the atmosphere of Tako Tsubo.
3. What do you like about the short form?
Eva: For a short film animated by hand like Tako Tsubo, 6 minutes were a very long duration; it feels like a lengthy film. Time becomes highly relative when working in this manner. It’s an interesting temporal experience. Everything seems to move in slow motion and almost begins to melt.
Fanny: I don’t have a special preference for the short or the long form of a film. In my perfect setting, I would start any film before deciding how long it will be in the end, just as we did with Tako Tsubo. I like it when the length decides itself in the working process.
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INTERVIEWS
Interview with Fanny Sorgo & Eva Pedroza for ARTE Kurzschluss
PRESS REVIEWS
„Mit sechs Minuten ist „Tako Tsubo“ von Fanny Sorgo und Eva Pedroza einer der kürzesten Filme.“
mention at Frankfurter Rundschau
„The Austro-German Tako Tsubo (Fanny Sorgo and Eva Pedroza, 2024) is a brilliant and nutty take on the mental health epidemic and tunnel-mindedness inherent to many medical professions“
mention by Fedor Tot for Journey into Cinema
„Tako Tsubo by Fanny Sorgo and Eva Pedroza (Austria/Germany), a more subtle but no less humorous piece about a man deciding to give up his heart. „
mention by Laurence Boyce for Cineuropa
„Pedroza’s hand-drawn animation emphasises the marks that life leaves on us with the way that the movement of objects is coloured over, mostly erasing their former position, but not quite. It creates visual echoes that follow the characters and their actions, meaning that what they say and do feels like it remains on screen long after the fact. In the same moment as its characters seek to dislocate themselves from bodily manifestations of their ailments, Sorgo and Pedroza remind us of the lingering past through the visible fingerprints of the film’s physical creation.“
review by Ben Nicholson for The Film Verdict
„Herzlos sein, das will Herr Ham (Benjamin Martin), und zwar so richtig, im brutal buchstäblichen Sinn. Also macht er, was viele Leute hierzulande machen: Er geht zum Arzt. Aber nicht zum Psychologen, sondern zum Chirurgen. So beginnt bei den Berlinale Shorts Eva Pedrazas und Fanny Sorgos makabere Miniatur über diese Gegenwart, in der Gefühle wie ein Störfaktor behandelt werden. Auf doppelter Ebene, sowohl sozial als auch ärztlich. Real mit Medikamenten, auf der Leinwand mittels Operation.“
review by Lida Bach for moviebreak
„The man holds the bleeding heart that has just been removed in his hand for a while. Mr Ham, as he is called, imitates Hamlet in Shakespeare’s famous work, who holds the jester’s skull in his hand. Then parodying the famed monologue “To be or not to be, that is the question,” Mr Ham mumbles: “Subject—object—subject—object.”
Review by Isabel Roy and Verena Nees for World Socialist Web Site
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„Tako Tsubo: the film is painted in lush watercolours, you can see the wet brushstrokes and the colours running on the paper. „
interview with section head Anna Henckel-Donnersmarck for Berlinale Topics
reactions on letterboxd
Berlinale Shorts 