its power, its genuine realism. By breaking the laws of art, we inevitably slip into tired verisimilitude, which we often attempt to pass off as realism, even though it has nothing to do with either the truth of art or the truth of life." Atamanov also is keen to retain uslovnost’ or the artistry of animation of an animation frame by focusing on the aspects of the background or characters and exploring new traits within the frame that disassociates itself from its exact representation in the world. The animators elicits emotions into the frames such as removing shadows from the faces and bringing new dimensions to the characters such as the Snow Queen's henchmen drawn in toy-like fashion. Awards The film has won many international awards including the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and the animation award at the Cannes Film Festival. 1957—Venice Film Festival: Golden Lion in the animated film category First Prize at the International Film Festival for Children and Youth in Venice 1958—Cannes Film Festival: First prize in the animated film category 1958—Rome: First prize 1958—Moscow International Film Festival: Special prize 1959—London (Festival of festivals): Prize for best film of year 2003—International Laputa Animation Film Festival - Tokyo, Japan: 17th best Animated Film in History 2006—Komsomolskaya Pravda rating of the ten best cartoons in Russia Themes The central theme of the film is how "even an icy heart can be melted." Only the main character Gerda is capable of wielding this power of reconciliation and repentance as she roams the icy lands of the Snow Queen to save her kidnapped friend. A metaphor that relates to the theme of reconciliation is when the character robber, a short-tempered animal hunter of deer, hares, foxes meets Gerda. The little robber, amazed by Gerda's kindness, releases the girl along with the reindeer, and then frees all her captive animals. The film juxtaposes Gerda's purity with macabre elements in two episodes where Gerda meets the magician at the garden of eternal summer and Gerda's misadventure with Mr. Corax the raven. The film's central conflict revolves around the power of love and purity solving the problem of the detachment of the soul. The conflict is described at the meeting of the characters Gerda and Kai at the snow palace, where Kai remarks at the snow polygons and states, "beautiful, they are more beautiful than real flowers!" The film's array of