Introduction
U-Trip is an animated film, in six five minute episodes, that explore the life of the U-Bahn, Berlin’s metro system. U is for “underworld”.
The action takes place on platforms and in trains, in the arterial labyrinth of the U-Bahn. Public transport is the locus of Berliner life. People of different origins, ages, destinies, wealth, professions, and social status are forced to into one place, at one time. What is soci- ety, but people on a crowded train, or sitting on a platform, waiting for one to arrive?
The film’s title, U-Trip, has layers of meaning. “U” points not only at “underground” in the sense of subway or metro, but also stands for “underground culture”, a counterpart to the mainstream. The word “trip” alludes to a journey into the subconscious, into the world of hallucinations, fantasies, surrealism and hyperbolization of reality of Berlin’s drug-fueled nightlife, which often extends well into the next day. But even in the harsh light of day, the U-Bahn, the underground train, sings its own songs.
Second episode
Title: U-Trip Go! / Medium: animation, 2D, hand-drawn / Year: 2022 / Time: 6.30 min / Genre: social satire / Counrties of production: Germany, Ukraine / Regie and animation: Maria Naidyonova / Music: Aleksandr Sudin / Production: Maria Naidyonova / Supported by BKM, NEUSTART KULTUR & Deutschen Künstlerbund
Synopsis "U-Trip Go!"
“U-Trip Go!" provides a glimpse into the inner-lives of Berlin’s subway, the U-Bahn. This episode follows a homeless man who spends most of his time in the underground. It is both his workplace and his playground. The animated film uses hallucinatory imagery to explore the fraught path one walks while being creative amid poverty, of being inventive while being bereaved, and all the time existing in the shadow of self-destruction.
Gefördert durch die Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien im Programm NEUSTART KULTUR Modul D – Digitale Vermittlungsformate.
Trailer U-Trip Go!
First episode
Title: U-Trip / Medium: animation, 2D, hand-drawn / Year: 2021 / Time: 5.50 min / Genre: comedy, mockumentary / Counrties of production: Germany, Denmark, Ukraine / Regie and animation: Maria Naidyonova / Music: Aleksandr Sudin / Production: Svend Erik Kundby-Nielsen
Synopsis “U-Trip”
The animated film U-Trip is the story of a day in the life of Berlin’s metro system, the U-Bahn. Train cars and stations become the meeting point of a vast array of characters drawn from the rich and tattered fabric of 21st century Berlin.
The story starts at 4:00 a.m. as the U-Bahn opens, with only a cleaning person and homeless woman on the otherwise deserted platform. A ticking clock builds the accelerating rhythm of the film as passengers begin filling the station, each in a hurry to fulfil their morning’s destiny, all under the watchful eye of the video surveillance camera, which is always present, but cannot intervene.
The characters interact, inadvertently or purposefully, changing each other as they go, while the U-Bahn rumbles and trundles along, carrying with it moments of subterranean atmosphere and isolation from the streets above. The U-Bahn, the underground train, is its own world.
Trailer U-Trip