Prologue

Yikes, but there is something leathery - almost embalmed, about the characterisations here is this beautifully crafted depiction of war - and the painful futilty thereof. There are four warriors facing off against each other. Two, naked, are from Sparta. The other pair are better armed and hail from Athens. With one of them an archer, you'd have thought this could have been a straightforward enough slaughter, but it turns out he's not so proficient and so plenty of close combat ensues with spears, short swords and gymnastic brute force. This is all being observed by a distraught young girl and her mother. Is one of these men her father? Her brother? The attention to the detail, the shadowing and the sinuous movement are captured astonishingly well here. It looks like every frame has been hand drawn from scratch and then edited together so that each shot looks natural, but ever so slightly different in contrast, from the one before. They are depicted like leopards stalking each other; their footwork paid just as much attention to as their almost perfect facial expressions. This really is a work of art and is well worth a gander.