Balance is an animated shortfilm from 1989 realized in stop motion technique. It tells a story about five men, interacting on a hovering platform.

The short film had a very low budget because the directors had just been students of fine arts at this time. With an old mechanical 16 mm Beaulieu camera they filmed Balance in the basement of their parents`house.  For the hovering platform they used their former table tennis tables.

Nevertheless the film achieved many international prizes, among others the Oscar (Academy Award) for best animated short in 1990.

press reviews

This suggestive German film, coming up at the birth of a new Europe, can be seen not only in human terms, but as an allegory of international relations as well.

The New York Times

Balance picked up a well deserved Oscar for its depiction of the absurdity of doomsday politics.

Toronto Star                                                                                                                                   

Balance turns a black comedy into a meditation on human interdependence.

Los Angeles Times                                                                                                                                       

Balance by West Germans Christoph and Wolfgang Lauenstein is equal parts choreography and Samuel Beckett.

The Washington Post                                                                                                                           

...must be called a classic!....It animates the principle needed for true glasnost, racial harmony and ecological well-being.

The Milwaukee Sentinel

Oscar well deserved.

Entertainment Today

Ein atemberaubender Kurzfilm.

Kultur Aktuell

Eine beeindruckende Parabel über den Homo Sapiens, weder angekettet noch eingemauert, sondern verdammt zu gegenseitiger Abhängigkeit auf schwebender Plattform.

TIP