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USA, 2008, 82 Min Directed by NINA PALEY |
If the Hindu gods can't get love right, what chance does a modern American mortal have? One of the most visually lavish, colorfully explosive, and thoroughly unique animated features you'll ever see, SITA SINGS THE BLUES interprets The Ramayana, the story of the kidnapping of Sita, wife of Rama, by an evil king. Narrated by a wryly comic trio of Indonesian shadow puppets (go ahead . . . digest it), Sita's tale is also layered with what we can only describe as animated videos music, featuring Hindu singing to 1920s jazz music, and the modern American story of love-gone-bad, based on the true life experience of filmmaker Nina Paley. Gifted Paley has put as much sensuous beauty in 82 minutes as any film could hold, including several different types of animation, classic and modern Indian music, thoughtful consideration of what love is, and a monkey army. If that's not enough, here's what Roger Ebert said about SITA on his Chicago Sun-Times blog: "I am enchanted. I am swept away. I am smiling from one end of the film to the other. It is astonishingly original." Did we mention the monkey army? 
