Lavatory Lovestory

It is said that some men lead lives of quiet desperation - and the same could be said of some women too.  I must say that the title of this Oscar nominated animated short film did put me off a little but I should not have worried that I was going to see something that I would have preferred not to.

It tells the story of a single, middle aged lady who works as a lavatory attendant.  To all intents and purposes it looks as if there is little else in her life but her mundane job and she longs for company.  Making matters worse, of course, is that she is surrounded by unavailable men for the duration of her working day.  Then, one day, she finds flowers in the jar that is used to collect the payment for using the facility.  Is her life about to change?

I never thought that the words toilet and charming would go together, but this really is.  Simply drawn in black and white (except for, well - you will see) this animated short film has pathos and humanity in buckets (and it has buckets too, believe me!).

It was created by the Melnitsa Animation Studio, which is based in St Petersburg in Russia.  You may know them for the animated feature film Little Longnose which was released in 2004. It was directed by Konstantin Bronzit and produced by Alexander Boyarsky and Sergey Selyakov.

Enjoy!