Equal parts German Expressionism and Russian Agit-prop, Heart of the World is a six minute epic of Biblical proportions.Maddin's usual idiosyncrasies resurface - Scandinavian Love triangle Melodrama amidst impending social catastrophe.Being from the Tarkovskian school of thought, an ASL (average shot length) of under 2 seconds would normally be scoffed at, but an exception will have to be made in this case, as the rapid-cutting is truly elevated to an art form here.The music is appropriately over-the-top and compliments the film perfectly.One of the wittiest, most inventive short films ever.

All the money that is wasted in Canada every year on worst self-indulgent, introspective, pseudo intellectual fake art films on the planet and one six-minute film schools the whole horrible mess for the rubbish it is. This is a gem - see it whatever you do and avoid everything else from Canada.

I saw this film on TV, and perhaps it wasn't the best medium to do so...But, nonetheless, I was shocked and thrilled about this film...The tone reminded me of Fritz Lang's opus, Metropolis. The speeding music hits the viewers like a freight train... Rigorously brought on screen with the strong visual sequences.. This is truly what art stands for...

Fans of Guy Maddin should check out this new short film. If you thought his previous short film Odilon Redon was an excellent film, The Heart Of The World tops it.The pacing is frantic, the storyline is the classic love triangle that Guy loves working with, the setting is heavily influenced by Soviet imagery. Even the editing style is very similar to that of Eisenstein.What also makes this film work very well is the accompanying Soviet music entitled Time, Forward.Whereas Guy's recent longer narratives have failed (The Hands of Ida, and Twilight Of The Ice Nymphs), his shorts films just keep getting better and better.