Renowned animator Andreas Deja will introduce his directorial debut, “Mushka” which tells the story of a young Ukrainian girl, Sarah, who discovers an orphaned baby Siberian tiger and realizes she must raise him or leave him to the perils of the snowy wild. Her love of the tiger grows as Mushka does, but it’s not long before a few unsavoury people in the village notice his beauty and enact a plan to kill and sell him for profit. To save Mushka, Sarah reluctantly takes him back to the forest, to the same spot where she found him as an orphaned cub, hoping that he will stay there and learn how to fend for himself. Although she must turn her back on her animal friend to force him away, she recognizes that sometimes letting go is life’s hardest lesson, but that life also has a way to provide hope and happiness again.
The screening of the finished film will be followed by a behind the scenes look, from classic animation influence of Disney’s “101 Dalmatians,” to finding the perfect collaborators to bring the vision of “Mushka” to life.