Vaysha is not like other little girls: she was born with a left eye that sees only the past and a right eye that sees only the future, and she cannot live in the present. Should she poke out one of her eyes so that she can live in the other’s temporal reality? Or is she doomed to perceive the world from this perplexing perspective?

Blind Vaysha is an expressionistic work that’s been created in three distinct versions: 2D, stereoscopic 3D and virtual reality (VR). Director Théodore Ushev embraced VR for one simple reason: to allow viewers to have a more visceral connection with his heroine. He uses this immersive technology to serve the purposes of narrative, not visual spectacle, and to make the central metaphor of his story, which is steeped in Buddhist wisdom, that much more compelling.

Each of these versions uses the same animation method: the traditional art of linocutting recreated on a graphics tablet, a popular tool for today’s animators. The result is a fascinating encounter between artistic tradition and cutting-edge technology—an apt way of perpetuating an exquisite, centuries-old form of visual art.

Presented in partnership with the National Film Board of Canada.