A big hand for nimble fingers

The Great War of 1914-18 gave rise to the soldier-poet driven by a quest to reveal the horror of war. This production by the Rotterdam-based Hotel Modern company recreates the terror and helplessness of men trapped in hell which Owen and Sassoon captured so powerfully at the time.

This animation film is a remarkable feat of ingenuity – every effect created live by a miniature puppet show played to camera and fed to a huge screen. The trenches are created in a tray of earth, the soldiers are tiny fabric puppets, the fires are blow-torch flames, but the skill of the three puppeteers and the brilliant sound effects of musician Arthur Sauer create a virtually perfect illusion.

Perhaps the real star of this production is the voice of the soldier. Diaries and letters from the trenches add poignancy to the scene of death, rats, mud and blood created by the magic hands of puppeteers Herman Helle, Pauline Kalker and Arlene Hoornweg. The science of micro-surgery has surely been cheated of men and women with such magic fingers. The trio display a unique sense of how humans walk, run and fall down dead.

The effect of this expert puppetry is to reveal how war is created by human hands but develops its own relentless momentum which leaves individuals completely helpless and vulnerable. It is a particularly apt time for the Hotel Modern to place us in the shoes of our ancester soldiers.

Though another conflict has begun to influence world history, we are just as much in danger as ever for forgetting what Remembrance Sunday is all about. If you want really to get an idea of the impact of The Great War on its combatants, you won’t do much better than watch this production.

09-11-2001