Kudzok (translated as "The Struggle") is a 1977 animated short film (very short, 2 1/2 minutes) directed by Marcell Jankovics.
A sculptor, a young man, contemplates a lump of marble sitting on a plinth in what presumably is his studio. He gets a moment of artistic inspiration, seeing a face in the lump of marble, and begins sculpting. Then, however, something unexpected happens: the sculpture comes to life, and it starts to sculpt him even as he sculpts it.
Tropes:
- Art Initiates Life: The sculptor, a muscular young man, chisels a statue of another muscular young man, who comes to life and starts chiseling back at him.
- Blank White Void: The space that one might presume is the sculptor's studio is presented as simply a blank void, with the only thing appearing onscreen being the two characters.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The whole film is drawn in black and white, with what appears to be charcoal.
- Downer Ending: The sculptor, who has become a withered, toothless old man in the process of creating his statue, collapses in what appears to be death.
- "Eureka!" Moment: When the face appears in the marble and the sculptor knows what to do.
- Life Drinker: Basically what happens in the short, albeit as a metaphor for artistic creation. The statue, as it takes form, chisels back at the man. By the end, the statue is a vigorous youth and the sculptor is hunchbacked and old.
- Male Frontal Nudity: The sculptor is naked.
- Metaphoric Metamorphosis: The statue comes to life and begins sculpting away at its sculptor, rendering the sculptor into a shrunken old man. The metaphor of the artistic process of creation, and how creating art takes something out of the artist, is obvious.
- Real Time: There are no time skips in the short, although it's symbolism so it might be better viewed as a very long period of time passing quickly.
- Silence Is Golden: There is no dialogue in the short.
