February 14th, 2023 
Jackson Murphy 
Following its Annecy 2022 Cristal win, Amok is now one of the nominees for Best Short Subject at the 2023 Annie Awards. You can watch the ceremony live Saturday February 25th at 10pmET / 7pmPT at AnnieAwards.org. This a bold, wild saga of a man whose life dramatically changes… a few times. Director Balazs Turai describes the visionary layers of Amok in this Animation Scoop Q&A. (This interview was conducted as an Email Q&A and was edited for length and clarity.)
Jackson Murphy: How does it feel to be a 2023 Annie Award nominee?
Balazs Turai: I’m honored and very happy that viewers and juries enjoy the film. Also, it’s nice to imagine it will be projected somewhere under the Hollywood sign.
JM: What did you want to say about the complexities of relationships?
BT: Something like: It’s fortunate and maybe necessary if your partner’s dark side matches yours. I think we have tiny control over our character while our character has huge control over us. And a friend, partner or therapist can aid immensely in this interior power struggle.
JM: That gnome is creepy… and memorable! What did you enjoy about incorporating this character?
BT: Evil gnomes are traditionally a trickster entity that watch us and know us. Even cute garden gnomes have something ominous about them, just standing there, staring at us. The crimson crescent of the gnome’s hat is like a shark fin, a handy danger symbol. And I like his evil grin, which to me means that he knows and exploits the protagonist’s hidden side.
JM: The colors you present are so cool and bold. How do you think about color and design?
BT: I crave color in films and fortunately, after the almost monochrome trends of the 2000’s, neon colors have made a comeback, so I jumped on the rainbow bandwagon. Márk Juhász, the background and compositing artist was an amazing help as always. He is a fantastic colorist. I guess ever since prehistoric times, colors have intrinsic practical and mystical meanings and I want to use that potential for communication.
JM: What were your goals with the tone and pacing of “Amok”?
BT: I wanted back and forth transitions from densely cut music video to slow paced melodrama to comedy in-between. I like it when a film’s tempo shifts, so the viewer doesn’t get settled into a single monotonous algorithm.
JM: Music and soundwork are key in several of the sequences. What were the challenges of getting the perfect score and sounds?
BT: In this case the music came before the film. My long time composer partner Benjamin Efrati produced a personal album which involved a lot of singing for the first time in his career. I loved his songs. They completely inspired my already half-existing story idea. In this respect, the music was no challenge, but rather a crutch for the storytelling. (Okay, there is always a hard step when Ben “upgrades” his original demos to well mixed songs – by that time I’m too much in love with the rough originals.) The sound design is the work of Péter B. Lukács, who created the sound of several Hungarian live action and animation films. I am guessing that his biggest challenge here was finding the right balance between music and sound effects / ambience and also between reality and imagined presences. I think he managed superbly.
JM: You take chances with what you can do with animation. How does the medium of animation inspire you?
BT: Nothing compares, in the respect that in animation you sculpt time itself. Anything is possible at any 24th of a second. Although I enjoy some series where animation is basically just puppeteering, when I direct I crave action, transformation and the morphing potential that only drawn animation can produce.
JM: Terry Gilliam is a visionary. What does it mean to you to have him be an Executive Producer on your short?
BT: What means even more to me is the very kind email he sent after we asked him to participate. “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” is one of my favorite films, it truly exhibits the spontaneous, dreamlike potential of cinema while remaining both entertaining and deep. One can hardly ask for a better piece of art. So the fact that Terry liked our film touched me to the core. I hope he likes the next one too!
JM: You’re already an Annecy winner (Congrats!) Do you have a speech prepared if you win an Annie Award?
BT: I don’t, but I’d surely thank Ben for his tunes, Márk for his colors and Carl Gustav for his archetype ideas.
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