Our Man in Nirvana

At the risk of sounding ever so Austin Powers, Our Man in Nirvana is groovy, baby.  Created by Jan Koester it is set at the musical height of the nineteen sixties. John is a flower power rock and roll star at the height of his psychedelic fame and success.  Yet things don’t go quite to planned at a concert and John wakes up in Nirvana.  Or at least, near the gates: first he has to face his wishes and deeds – what he did and what he might have done.

On the face of it that all sounds rather, well, well-intentioned but a little routine – but watch this as the animated short is full of surprises.  Our Man in Nirvana may be set forty years ago but it has very modern sensibilities when it comes to storytelling (not to mention humor). To begin with, it starts as a shadow puppet story but once John has slipped off his own particular mortal coil the film does a swift Wizard of Oz on us (you will see what I mean).  There are also a number of twists in this particular tale and the ending took me by surprise.

This is Jan Koester’s graduation film which he made at the Konrad Wolf Filmschool in Potsdam (Germany).  He is currently an animation director at the Talking Animals Animation Studio.