Your Covid-19 stories have made this animated Russian fairytale

A new animation uses fairytale tropes and characters to reimagine real life stories from Russia’s coronavirus crisis.

The Pandemic Chronotope combines digital 3D animation with traditional Russian illustration to create a story made out from personal anecdotes about the impact of Covid-19 on daily life.

Russian artist and UX designer Mariia Fedorova used the common themes from submissions she received following an open call in May to spin adventures for two characters: Vasilisa Tsarevna and Ivan Tsarevich.

“I found that there were a lot of similarities in people’s experiences: they were scared to hug their parents, they got fined for being outdoors without papers, or they got into a bureaucratic mess using the international postage system. So I combined them,” Fedorova told The Calvert Journal.

In the animation, parcels from loving friends living far away are delivered by the squirrels at the edge of the woods, while the heroes escape the omnipresent guards. The pair struggle to find magical solutions to “lighten this damned darkness”, such as the feather from the Firebird, the Russian fairytale symbol of luck and light — which, in corona terms, could stand for the long-awaited vaccine.

Fedorova hopes that this collective fairy tale will “convey an image of this unique time to future generations”.

Find out more, read and watch the story here.