– Viera Čákanyová takes her viewers on a meditative journey through death and rebirth
“Bardo” is a term referring to the liminal space between death and rebirth. According to the Tibetan Book of the Dead, from which the word originates, mantras are read to the dying person to help them peacefully leave one life and reincarnate into a new one. Similarly, in her new film Bardo, Slovakian animator Viera Čákanyová takes us on a 27-minute voyage during which she delivers a monologue describing what to feel and what to see, leading to the end – and a new beginning.
Having world-premiered at FIDMarseille 2025, Bardo has travelled to several major documentary festivals, now reaching the animation showcase Fest Anča in Žilina, Slovakia. Its selection as an animated film only highlights how versatile it is – standing at the confluence of avant-garde, documentary and animation – much like the story itself, which embarks from one life only to end somewhere completely unexpected.
Semi-abstract, transient and glowing images on screen remind us of the visuals seen when closing the eyes very tightly. Out of the darkness, shapes and characters in various colours emerge. Combined with the ambient music and Čákanyová’s own tranquil voice, the result is almost hypnotic.
At one point the viewer becomes a giant sequoia that has just grown out of the ground; the next minute they are a blind mole trying to dig through that aforementioned earth. Just a second later they become an embryo, while at the same time being the womb from which it will be born.
Čákanyová’s Bardo is a meditative journey through consciousness, from one state of mind to another, that for nearly half an hour does not let the viewers take their eyes off the screen. Simultaneously, it is a meticulously detailed animation that, like a metaphysical documentary, evokes the liminal space that everyone must one day enter.
