FF Review: Blood Tea and Red String

Of all the films I saw during Fantastic Fest, Blood Tea and Red String was certainly the strangest. In fact, it is the oddest film I've seen all year, and certainly earns big points for originality. Fantastic Fest programmer Kier-La Janisse described the stop-motion animated film as "Beatrix Potter in hell." Director Christiane Cegavske worked on the feature film, primarily alone, for 13 years.

Blood Tea and Red String is so very original that the plot is hard to describe. What are those creatures with the brown fur and pig-like ears that walk on two legs like humans and speak in bird-like squawks? (Cegavske's website calls them the Oak Dwellers.) These creatures decide to create a large doll that resembles a human female, and tuck an egg inside her torso. They tie her to their tree-home with red string, and everyone seems happy. However, under cover of night, the red-eyed white mice steal the doll-woman and take her to their lair, where they drink blood-red tea interminably and play card games with seemingly blank cards. The Oak Dwellers embark on a quest to find their beloved doll, encountering a variety of creatures both good (the frog) and evil (the spider woman).

Cegavske has managed to create a distinct and unique universe for the film. I wasn't thinking about Beatrix Potter, but about the stop-motion animation TV shows I watched as a child with little woodland creatures moving in that slightly jerky way. This movie takes that look to extremes. The flowers in front of the Oak Dwellers' tree all have sweet happy faces, but the flowers in front of the white mice's lair have little skulls inside their petals. The mice have a pet with the body of a raven and a human skull for a head. If this sounds Tim Burton-ish, it's not; the visuals are entirely different in style. The film contains no human words -- the dialogue consists of bird squawks and mouse squeaks and other animal noises.

My chief difficulty with Blood Tea and Red String is that it is too long, although the running time is only 70 minutes. The characters spend an inordinate amount of time in eating and drinking. If this is meant to convey some deep emotion or symbolism, I missed it. I would have preferred the film as a short, perhaps 20-25 minutes long. Even then, I'm not sure I would have picked up on whatever message the film might be trying to express. The doll with a live egg inside her, and the way the other animals treat her, surely must indicate some comment on female sexuality, but what? At times I felt lost and confused, and at other times, slightly bored. The amazing visuals aren't enough to carry the film at its current length. The music is often grating and repetitive, as well.

Blood Tea and Red String does contain some wonderfully surreal scenes, particularly the sequence in which the Oak Dwellers are lured into a labyrinth and garden. The film becomes downright trippy and a little scary -- I found it to be the most fascinating part of the film. Unfortunately, it occurs about halfway through the film, and the film never again seems to reach that level of interesting freakiness.

Despite my problems with the film, I don't regret choosing to see Blood Tea and Red String. We spend so much time watching sequels, remakes, re-adaptations, and narratives that rehash the same tired plots, storylines, and settings, that a film this original is refreshing even if it doesn't succeed in maintaining my undivided interest. I'm glad I had the opportunity to see the film on a big theater screen -- I'm not sure DVD will do it justice.