Nineteen-minute Russian short film animated by Anatoly Petrov. This was his first treatment of mythological material from ancient Greece. He would go on to produce four other shorts for Soyuzmultfilm in the 1990s that depict mythological stories with overtly erotic content, which is unusual in Russian animation. These include “The Birth of Eros”, “Daphne”, “The Nymph Salmacis” and “Polyphemus, Acis and Galatea.” These films are also unique due to their experimental use of two-dimensional handcrafted cell animation as a means of creating three-dimensional effects.
“In the early 1980s , Petrov turned to ancient Greek myths. Incredibly laborious in technical execution, the work on the film Hercules at Admet (1986) lasted five years. “The whole film is a big continuous experiment for me. ‘I wanted to sing a man, convey physical perfection, the beauty of his body, his whole appearance, and through them penetrate the harmonious world of his clear and sublime feelings.'”
Animated Antiquity 
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