The Beauty of ‘The House of Small Cubes’

An enduring and heartfelt story of an old man’s life journey and his fight to survive a drowning world.. and that is not metaphorical.

How often does a short story bring tears to your eyes? Let alone a 12-minute visual narrative that defies standard storytelling. It’s a beautiful art and wordless masterpiece.

You are instantly drawn into this old man’s melancholic life. Simple animation, movements with cadence as his life is unveiled and traversing the dimensions of his burdensome survival. “It’s a short film about the everlasting effect of time on one’s life — how it can swallow the past entirely, and how one must learn to continue moving forward despite what had already happened”.

The silence of the film supersedes the need for words as it conveys what is only essential. The clutter is put away as this masterpiece forces you to question your own life and the meaning of it. the creator was able to characterize a person in-depth for merely 12 minutes, unlike most full featured film.

Although this film is obviously playing with themes about life and death, it also touches on family, memories, and the pain of growing old. It’s a reflection of our own demons that forces us to cling to the far future without appreciating what we have now. It’s an exposition of man’s current quandary as we tend to take for granted the humanistic ideas on why we are here.