This is a very cool cartoon, but for the life of me, it defies description because the animators seemed to abandon all convention as well as a traditional narrative and simply created an amazing surreal concoction. While I have used the word "surreal" a lot lately (because I have watched a lot of international animation shorts), this one is THE most surreal and bizarre of the lot! However, at the same time, the animation (while black & white) is exceptionally well done and exciting to watch.The film is set along the coast and there is a bad wind storm. At first, it's all pretty normal looking, but then the types of creatures that appear are just plain weird--but also often rather cute. One of the odd creatures are one that looks like a bunny and angel morphed into one and it comes and goes a lot in this film and another looks lot like Q-Bert! However, the central character is a rather normal looking little girl. I'd love to say more about it, but it's all just too odd and fanciful for words--see it instead and delight at the strange and marvelous world created by Ivan Maksimov.

Ivan Maksimov's short film, 'Veter vdol berega {Wind Along the Coast} (2004)' will never join the ranks of the greatest Russian animated short films, though it is an incredibly original six minutes of fun and mayhem. Traditionally-animated {though I think computers might also have been used} in crisp black-and-white, and lacking any dialogue whatsoever, the film is an enjoyable caution of the troubles facing residents who live on the coastline, completely unprotected from the ferocious winds. As a young girl rises in the morning, she ambles off to the beach for some playtime, but finds that the gales make building a sandcastle virtually impossible. Using her initiative, she must find a way to work around this peculiar problem. Meanwhile, the other residents of the town similarly battle with the windstorm, while themselves and their houses are ceaselessly battered by the blustery weather. While some brave the elements to go fishing – an exercise in futility – most of the other residents simply hide out in their homes, blankets over their heads, hoping for the best.Curiously, 'Wind Along the Coast' contains a fair amount of surrealistic elements, mostly in the strange creatures that seem to inhabit the town. The young girl on the beach befriends some sort of cute bird/rabbit hybrid, and, unless my eyes are deceiving me, I could have sworn that I witnessed one resident actually milking a fish! Animals and people, driven by the winds, slam straight through solid building walls as if they were made of cardboard, and many a home is left spiralling away in the breeze. All this action is played out without any dialogue, accompanied by an enjoyable, easy-listening music track by Daniil Kramer and Alexei Kuznetsov. The weather takes on a character of its own, the one bully causing all the trouble, preventing the other inhabitants from living an easy existence. Of course, for the most part, daily life goes on as best as it can, but it makes you feel glad that you don't live on the Russian coast.