This first film (the only Australian short film to be invited to Cannes this year) by visual artist Tony Twigg, is a highly structured piece which uses basic animation techniques to set up a change in its structure. A tryptic of images is creatively played off against a chant which uses repetitive key phrases in which the voice becomes increasingly more urgent, then fades away invoking a sense of sadness and resigna­tion. The music touches a deep chord within our personal and cultural history, A Passion Play moves from simple stick figures through to figurative images. The figures are intermit­tently overlaid onto representations of oil paintings, which provide a rich textural ele­ment. The seemingly random interplay of image and aural recitation, the use of the repet­itive phrases which change in relationship to the image., and the simplicity of the film form, heightens its emotional impact in what is ulti­mately an extraordinary and powerful render­ing of the 30 incidents that are "The Stick Story". (LA)