Semiotic Plastic

The makers of this short film must have had fun reenacting human existence with plastic toys, from birth to death, through childhood, youth, adulthood, and decline into old age. The effect is also sinister as these soulless plastic dolls become huge on the cinema screen.

Detailed tableaux vivants depict the archetypal phases of human existence: a Barbie spreads her impossibly long legs to give birth to a Barbie baby, accompanied by electronic crying baby sounds. Wind-up baby dolls stiffly taking their first steps, Lego commuters wait at the station for their Lego train. Plastic Indians fight wars with plastic cowboys. And poignantly, a doll stands alone facing a row of toy tanks. Of course there is a lot of sex, in every possible variation. And there is despair, stupidity, cruelty, and racism, because here too the plastic universe reflects the world of flesh and blood.