Short synopsis

Arachne, the masterful weaver, spun tales of the gods’ misdeeds. But for weaving the truth, she was met with divine wrath, cruel and unrelenting. 

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The Myth of the Spider and the Artist in Authoritarian Regimes

The thematic and aesthetic focus of the film is the myth of Arachni (The Weaver): It is a story found in Ovid's epic Metamorphoses and is interpreted as a critique of the censorship imposed by the authoritarian regime established during Ovid's lifetime: Ovid himself is identified with Arachni, as he was a poet who dared to criticize the regime of the first Roman emperor Octavian Augustus and was punished for this by exile to the Black Sea. The Weaving of Arachni is a revolutionary and anti-establishment work because, in front of the goddess Athena herself, it dares to depict the crimes and injustices committed by the gods against human beings, thus denouncing the arrogance of power. In particular, her weaving depicts gods transforming themselves into animals or humans in order to deceive and seduce mortals. These tales of divine lust and violence infuriate Athena, who in her own weaving presents a "as it should be" view of the relationship between gods and humans. In the film, the intensity of the Weaver horrific punishment finds analogy in images that allude to our troubled present, which remains essentially unchanged despite its apparent transformations.

 

In the current period, due to an unprecedented global crisis that limits every aspect of our lives, we feel that democratic institutions are under great pressure - including the possibility of artistic expression, which has always been a pillar of democracy and a potential counter to power. The film implicitly touches on this theme, using the poetic and allegorical language of artistic animation.