"R'ha"

R'ha, A Short Film by Kaleb Lechowski

Like any art lover, I'm always on the lookout for new and interesting artists and their works and I like to share them with you (assuming you actually read my nonsense).

Anyway, I was perusing the often amusing Neatorama and came across this fascinating Sci-Fi CG short film R'ha from German film student Kaleb Lechowski. There is, according to Neatorama, much buzz about turning this short into a feature, though we know buzz doesn't always mean very much. Personally, I really would love to see R'ha expanded to feature length. Lechowsky certainly has some interesting ideas and creates rather stunning futuristic city-scapes. And I love that there are no human characters, a true rarity in the genre (at least on film and TV).  

See for yourself. I recommend watching full screen, especially if you have an HD monitor. 

R´ha [short movie] from Kaleb Lechowski on Vimeo.

I've posted before about shorts with potential to become features, which never seem to pan out. R'ha is different, if only because of it's lack of humans. The four-armed organic protagonist reminded me of the stop-motion demon in Stephen Dorf's 1987 film debut, The Gate and the hydra-like A.I. character was nothing we haven't seen before. Machines rising against their organic creators is hardly a new Sci-Fi theme nor are bands of determined rebels fighting for their (usually) humanity. And while the plot and dialog are hardly groundbreaking, Lechowski's visual (especially those astounding alien skylines) acumen cannot be denied. I honestly want to see what happened before this scene and what happens after. And I have to wonder, can machines lose their "minds?"

What do you think? Is R'ha something you'd want to spend 90 - 140 minutes watching? I'm pretty sure I would.

More, anon.
Prospero