Chinese artist Sun Xun spent over ten years making this feature-length animation. In a fictional coal-rich empire a magician helps people recall memories lost under authoritarian rule. After his arrest, the magician meets an orphan in prison and gives him a mysterious book. The magician is executed but the boy uses the book to reveal memories hidden by the empire... Ink wash painting, medieval European engravings, various artistic styles of all ages and lands depict, on a grand scale, the boy's journey, intertwining reality and fantasy, history and myth. Magic Atlas transcends boundaries between film and contemporary art.
Born in Fuxin, China, in 1980, Sun Xun graduated from the Printmaking Department of the China Academy of Fine Arts. His woodblock animation film Some Actions Which Haven't Been Defined Yet in the Revolution was nominated for the Berlinale Shorts competition at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival in 2012, merely two years after his work 21G entered the 67th Venice International Film Festival in 2010.
From Tokyo International Film Festival 2026, No. 39
