"Death and the Robot"

   Last weekend, I visited the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. While I was on campus, there was a viewing of some of the student thesis work that had come out of the school recently.
   One of the films shown was called "Death and the Robot," a 2013 project by Austin Taylor, now an alumnus, which won numerous awards and recognitions at a variety of film festivals.
   The stop-motion short centers around a robot that lives beneath a cemetery and grows flowers in his underground greenhouse. Up above, Death calls the graveyard her home, destined (or cursed, rather) to kill anything she comes in contact with. One day, she stumbles upon the robot, who is kind enough to show her his garden - and a special bond is formed.
   Continuing with our study of love, I found this piece to be rife with not only beautiful imagery but sorrowful irony and the age-old adage that "opposites attract." While there is no dialogue, none is needed. The score and the wonderfully whimsical animation do more than enough to convey this uncommon yet charming love story.
   Through a union of science fiction and fantasy, this piece manages to portray love's enduring and pure characteristics; it isn't hard to discover the depth of the bond between the two protagonists. With a sort of fairy tale lore about it, "Death and the Robot" calls on love's innocence to tell the story.
   I don't really want to let his piece do all the talking, but I'm afraid there isn't much more I can say without revealing key details. It's really a film you have to see yourself. That being said, here's the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okCIHAbve3k

I hope anyone reading this gets just as much out of it as I did.