This film is part of the Optical Illusion series.

Description:

Death sets up shop in a big city and but is horrified at modern society's self-destructiveness. The 2nd film of the "Optical Illusion" trilogy.

Wordless except for the definition of "amentia" given at 1:41 ("a state of confusion, incoherence of consciousness, loss of orientation in time and place, often accompanied by significant motor agitation") and the sign above Death's office that first appears at 2:07 ("with home delivery").

This was the director's diploma work for VGIK. Although made in the Perestroika era and part of a trend of films being made by numerous Soviet animation directors at the time that seemed to reflect the collapse of their society around them (see: films by Fedulov, Saakyants, Pärn, Titov, Kovalyov, Fesenko, Andranikyan, Heidmets, Ernits, among others), the director intended it to reflect the stable Brezhnev period of the 1970s, when he would have been a young adult (aged 17-27).

In Aynutdinov's own words:
"Amentia" touched upon the era of the 70s, the Brezhnev period, when society looked like a rather faceless mass. It was important for me to show such a society without a hero. But dramaturgy requires a character that the viewer could empathize with. Then I came up with the idea of ​​using death in this capacity - something that unites us all, something that is democratic for everyone regardless of their positions and status in society. Death is the same for everyone. A person is born to die. It seemed to me the optimal solution to show that society is so ugly that even death turns out to be kinder than people. This allowed me to bring universal themes into the film that are understandable to everyone. Foreign viewers may not catch some of the film's social accents, but in general the film was watched with interest everywhere.

A detailed analysis (in Russian) by reviewer Aleksey Surtayev can be read here (and also here, in the context of Aynutdinov's other films).

Awards:
1991 - Egypt, Cairo - Cairo International Film Festival - Best Animated Film
1991 - Germany, Leipzig - Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film - Golden Dove
1992 - Portugal, Espinho - Espinho Film Festival - First Prize
Animator.ru claims that it won first prize in Tampere, Finland - but that doesn't seem to be true. Although there was a retrospective of Aynutdinov's films in Tampere in 1997.