” Taison ” is a GTA Contest finalist project that bears the signature of Isabella Bari, Victor Fernandes, Daria Romanova, Maria Fernanda Villaroel, Yuxiang Wang, students of NABA.
Taison is an experimental animated short film made with Unreal Engine 5.
It is a dreamlike reflection on the young priest Taison, immersed in religious duties and bodily desires. The film explores his relationship with materiality and the choice of whether to renounce his individualism in the name of ideology.
Taison is a disciplined man with firm values and principles, but his high expectations of himself lead him to constantly doubt himself.
As his duties increase, he struggles with the meaning of his faith and influence, while happiness and holiness seem to be at opposite ends of the same scale.
Throughout the short film, four scenes-Prayer, Sin, Guilt and Body-describe the stages of Taison’s emotional evolution, culminating in a reunion with himself, where the ordinary becomes extraordinary and the extraordinary becomes human.
The film is innovative not only technically, through the use of virtual camera recordings and motion capture for the real movements of the characters, but also because of its nonlinear narrative and unusual aesthetics, considering the software used. The fusion of real elements and virtual images allows for a more vivid representation of Taison’s inner life and a deeper connection with her emotions.
Taison, along with all the GTA Contest finalist works, will be exhibited at MAXXI in Rome from December 5-8, 2025, during the Grand Festival AFAM, the concluding event of the AFAM Grand Tour.
