Tower Bawher is a 2005 constructivist

Constructivism (art)

Constructivism was an artistic and architectural philosophy that originated in Russia beginning in 1919, which was a rejection of the idea of autonomous art. The movement was in favour of art as a practice for social purposes. Constructivism had a great effect on modern art movements of the 20th...

-style abstract

Abstract film

Abstract film is a subgenre of experimental film. Its history often overlaps with the concerns and history of visual music. Some of the earliest abstract motion pictures known to survive are those produced by a group of German artists working in the early 1920s, a movement referred to as Absolute...

 animated short by Theodore Ushev

Theodore Ushev

Theodore Ushev is an animator, graphic designer, illustrator and multimedia artist, from Montreal, Quebec, Canada.He was born in Bulgaria and graduated stage decoration, animation, and make-up at Plovdiv's School of Scenic Arts.He obtained a Master degree in Graphic Design from the National Academy...

, set to the musical composition

Musical composition

Musical composition can refer to an original piece of music, the structure of a musical piece, or the process of creating a new piece of music. People who practice composition are called composers.- Musical compositions :...

 "Time, Forward!

Time, Forward!

Time, Forward! is a 1965 Soviet drama film directed by Sofiya Milkina and Mikhail Shveytser based on a novel with the same name and a screenplay by Valentin Katayev. Composer Georgy Sviridov, sound by Lev Trakhtenberg. Production by Mosfilm by the order of Goskino.The title is derived from...

" by Russian

Russians

The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....

 composer Georgy Sviridov

Georgy Sviridov

Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov was a Soviet Russian neoromantic composer....

.

The film's title is an allusion to Tatlin's Tower

Tatlin's Tower

Tatlin’s Tower or The Monument to the Third International is a grand monumental building envisioned by the Russian artist and architect Vladimir Tatlin, but never built. It was planned to be erected in Petrograd Tatlin’s Tower or The Monument to the Third International is a grand monumental...

, an unbuilt structure conceived by Vladimir Tatlin

Vladimir Tatlin

Vladimir Yevgrafovich Tatlin was a Russian and Soviet painter and architect. With Kazimir Malevich he was one of the two most important figures in the Russian avant-garde art movement of the 1920s, and he later became the most important artist in the Constructivist movement...

 as a tribute to the glory of the proletariat

Proletariat

The proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class, usually the working class; a member of such a class is proletarian...

. Drawing on the tower's design, the film seems to build toward a utopian goal, until the grandiose, futuristic forms abruptly tumble. In Tower Bawher, Ushev celebrates constructivist art while also critiquing the use of art in the service of ideology. The film contains visual references to such Soviet era artists

Soviet art

Soviet art was the visual art produced in the Soviet Union.-Early years:During the Russian Revolution a movement was initiated to put all arts to service of the dictatorship of the proletariat...

 as Dziga Vertov

Dziga Vertov

David Abelevich Kaufman , better known by his pseudonym Dziga Vertov , was a Soviet pioneer documentary film, newsreel director and cinema theorist...

, the Stenberg brothers, Alexander Rodchenko

Alexander Rodchenko

Aleksander Mikhailovich Rodchenko was a Russian artist, sculptor, photographer and graphic designer. He was one of the founders of constructivism and Russian design; he was married to the artist Varvara Stepanova....

, El Lissitzky

El Lissitzky

, better known as El Lissitzky , was a Russian artist, designer, photographer, typographer, polemicist and architect. He was an important figure of the Russian avant garde, helping develop suprematism with his mentor, Kazimir Malevich, and designing numerous exhibition displays and propaganda works...

 and Lyubov Popova

Lyubov Popova

Lyubov Sergeyevna Popova was a Russian avant-garde artist , painter and designer. She was also a rarity in the highly male-dominated world of Soviet art.-Early life:...

.

The 3 minute 46 second film was made over a five-week period in Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, beginning in April 2005, when Ushev ran into problems working on was to have been his first animated short with the National Film Board of Canada

National Film Board of Canada

The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...

, the children's film Tzaritza. The filmmaker had a strong connection with the Sviridov musical piece, having heard it as a child in Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

 as the theme music

Theme music

Theme music is a piece that is often written specifically for a radio program, television program, video game or movie, and usually played during the title sequence and/or end credits...

 for the Soviet state TV evening news.

Despite difficulties in securing the music rights to the Sviridov composition, which had been in dispute in Russian civil court at the time, Tower Bawher was completed in time for its world premiere at the Ottawa International Animation Festival

Ottawa International Animation Festival

-History:In 1976, the Canadian Film Institute founded the biennial Ottawa International Animation Festival . First held August 10 to 15, 1976, the OIAF created a gathering place for North American animation professionals and enthusiasts to ponder the craft and business of animation...

 in September 2005. Awards for the film included the prize for best non-narrative film at I Castelli Animati festival and the award for best abstract film at the London International Animation Festival.