Children's Worlds, Threshold Fears, Identity Problems
35 short films were on this year's varied program of the children's and youth competition, which sought to spark the interest of young viewers with different themes, film techniques, and genres.
The search for one's place in the family and the world, and the search for personal identity, were themes that ran through films for almost all age groups, as did the exploration of grief, loss, and death. The threat to nature, the protagonists' immediate and wider living environments, dealing with escape, and finding a home in a new, foreign world were also addressed.
The animated film BOATPEOPLE (Thao Lam, Kjell Boersma, Canada, 2023; 16+), which received a Special Mention from the Youth Jury, uniquely addresses a family's escape from Vietnam, based on co-director Thao Lam's own experiences. Through elaborate animations, the family's story is intertwined with the millions of years of survival history of ants, illustrating their quest for a new place of refuge. The loss of the grandmother in Vietnam and the traumatic experiences of escaping profoundly shape their lives in Canada.
The film FUTURO (Amanda Cots Martínez, Ángel Suárez Ávila, Cuba, Spain, 2024; 16+) offers insight into the hopeless lives of young people in Havana. Adrian and Daniel see as little future in their city as they do for the large, ruined building where they meet, symbolizing their situation. A glimpse of freedom is suggested by the nearby, rushing sea when they jump into the water. However, Daniel must leave the country he loves to have any prospects for the future. The film's warm colors emphasize his sense of belonging and the significant loss he feels as he searches for a better future elsewhere.
Two films address the role of girls/young women in Iran. KODAM KHANE, KODAM DOUST (There is No Friend´s House, Abbas Taheri, Iran, France, 2023; 16+) and RIZOO (Azadeh Navai, Iran, USA, 2023; 8+). The latter is a witty eight-year-old who returns to Tehran from the USA with her mother and grandmother. Considered an outsider at school, she reports on her family's non-religious life in a school essay with childlike, stunning honesty, repeatedly interrupted by the teacher "correcting" her. The teacher's voice is heard, but he is never shown fully. Rizoo quickly learns and begins to "improve" her explanations herself. However, she stands up for herself when taking a school photo, deciding, after a long discussion with the photographer, to be photographed without the traditional headgear.
Regarding "There is No Friend's House," director Abbas Taheri, who was present, explained that he initially wrote a fake script to shoot the film he truly wanted to make. In the story, two friends smuggle alcohol into their school and get drunk. The teacher and principal initially attempt to cover up the incident, but someone has already informed Mehri's father, a government official, who comes to interrogate his daughter. He forces Mehri to falsely accuse her friend, even though she had brought the whisky from his (!) stash. In the end, Mehri is left standing in the rain, having lost both her friend and her integrity.
The music video BEYOND FAREWELL (Shijie Xing, USA, 2024; 14+), which won an award from the youth jury, explores the real loss of a friend. Sam tries to cope with the death of her friend Joy by immersing herself in work but is unsuccessful. As an AI engineer, Sam eventually uses AI glasses to meet Joy again, which helps her to finally let go.
Two notable entries in the 14+ section were SILHOUETTE (Alexis Lafuente, Marc Forest, Antoni Nicolai, Elliot Dreuille, Baptiste Gueusquin, Chloé Stritcher, France, 2023), the animated story of Claire, who, despite her name, does not see herself as bright and luminous. Instead, she feels like she is disappearing and being overlooked in the grey of the big city. It is only through brief contact with her colorfully dressed neighbor that Claire begins to see herself differently and recognize the vibrancy of life. AU 8ÉME JOUR (Agathe Sénéchal, Alicia Massez, Elise Debruyne, Flavie Carin, Théo Duhautois, France, 2023) describes the seven days of creation in colorful images, some of which are shot in stop-motion with vibrant animal puppets. However, everything is threatened and eventually destroyed by black threads that wind their way everywhere, causing living creatures to lose their footing and habitat. It presents a gloomy outlook on a world growing ever darker, without a glimmer of hope.
The film IRIS (Jon Vatne, Norway, 2024; 10+), whose title character is gifted with an overflowing imagination, won the ECFA Jury Prize. After an argument with her mother, Iris goes outside and meets little Theo, who immediately joins her and enjoys her fantastic stories. In a kind of road movie, Theo moves forward on his balance bike, and they experience a police operation in which a dealer throws away his bag of money and drugs, where reality trumps fantasy. Iris immediately demonstrates her practical skills: they use the money they find to buy a large portion of ice cream, which they both enjoy.
Iris's empathetic nature is shown when she wants to send the rest of the money to children in Syria by message in a bottle. She also manages to calm Theo down when he starts asking about his parents and almost falls into the water. The film successfully depicts the children's surroundings solely from their perspective. When Theo is finally rediscovered by his father and Iris makes her way home, not only does she encounter a unicorn, but her mother is also left wondering whether her imagination is playing tricks on her or if Iris is sometimes right after all!
The children's jury awarded a Special Mention to the film BROUILLARTA (Ingvild Søderlind, Norway, 2023), featured in the 10+ program. A somewhat timid ten-year-old from Norway spends his summer vacation alone with his French-Basque grandparents in a remote village. He explores the surroundings with his cousins of varying ages, who always seem a step ahead of him in terms of courage and knowledge of village customs. The mysterious figure of Brouillarta, often mentioned but unknown to him, adds to his uncertainty, as the girls attribute supposedly magical and mystical events to her. Eventually, Elliot finds himself isolated and recognized as the "outsider." When he loses track of time during his wanderings and ends up in complete darkness, it is his cousins who come to his aid and demystify many "mysterious and creepy" occurrences—revealing that Brouillarta is "only" the wind, which frequently blows in the area and causes doors to squeak and slam. Now, Elliot feels truly at home in his grandparents' village.
In the film I COME FROM THE SEA (Feyrouz Serhal, Lebanon, 2023), we follow three children in Tripoli who, instead of attending school, spend a day drifting through the city until they reach the sea. Samar, worried about her Arabic exam, convinces her friends Jude and Imad to wander through the city with her. They kindly assist a banana seller, explore the bazaar, and exchange their monotonous school uniforms for new clothes in vibrant colors - yellow, red, and blue - which appear in various scenes throughout their magical day. They experience the enchantment of a day where they escape their everyday lives, gliding over the water in an old taxi and seeing the world around them as if in a movie. Sitting in a boat, they enjoy a meal and their seemingly fairy-tale journey culminates with a swim in the sea. They gaze at the endless beach and sea, pondering the sky, and recite a text together about water and the sea. They have discovered not only the vastness of the sea but also the vibrant colors of a magical day that have brought color to their everyday lives.
The winner of the Children's Jury Prize from the 8+ program competition was MY SCHOOL (Keitaro Oshima, Japan, 2023). Children from a Japanese elementary school depicted their everyday school life through various drawings, interwoven with different animation techniques and real film footage, particularly of the school building. Behind the animated scenes, real pupils suddenly appear, such as during music lessons. The film presents a cheerful and colorful portrayal of school life, and the children's jury appreciated the active involvement of the children in its creation.
In CRAB DAY (Ross Stringer, United Kingdom, 2023), a simple yet impactful animation follows a boy on his journey into adulthood. Given a small, round crab by his father - characterized, like all men in the animation, by angular shapes - they enter a factory-like setting where other boys are cutting up their crab with a knife, as if on an assembly line. Our protagonist loses his crab and fails to complete the ritual, remaining a little boy. Returning home, he hides the small crab under his bed, where it grows overnight into a giant crab. The next morning, as his father seeks a new crab, the giant crab emerges and prompts a chaotic pursuit by the men. The protagonist strikes the giant crab with his knife, transforming into a unique, slimmer, and more agile figure than the other men. Sitting atop the crab in contemplation, applauded by the crab itself, he earns his father's approving nod—a sign of acceptance for his son's distinctive path in life, now possibly embarked upon astride the crab's back.
The special animated film ALL IS NOT LOST (Daniel Greaves, Ruth Beni, United Kingdom, 2023), a successful blend of stop-motion and drawn animation, was also featured in the same age category. Following an explosion, various body parts, shells, rocks, and other debris are discovered in a cave, assembling themselves into new creatures. Among them is a large and benevolent creature made of stones, reminiscent of the stone biters from "The Never Ending Story," serving as a father and/or God-like figure capable of creatively forming new creatures or enhancing others. Together, they traverse an underground labyrinth, learning to communicate, inventing music using their bodies as instruments, and discovering fire. However, an "evil" figure with a red beak, a diabolo, disrupts the emerging life with deceitful and destructive actions. Ultimately, the stone creature falls victim to this figure and shatters, prompting the others to conduct a mourning ritual accompanied by poignant music. As they continue their journey alone, life gradually returns to the reassembled stone figure. As light finally penetrates the cave world from afar, one wonders if it will guide these figures to freedom.
FRITE SANS MAILLOT (Matteo Salanave Piazza, France, 2023; 6+), the winning film of the children's jury, tells the humorous tale of Anthony, who forgets his swimming trunks for class and arrives in his underpants instead. Through subtle changes in Anthony's facial expressions, this animated film effectively captures the boy's emotions. Encouraged by the teacher, who sees no issue with Anthony wearing his underpants, he gains the courage to slide down the big water slide. He loses his underpants, but inspired by his new self-confidence, he frolics around in the water. Watching this film with many children at the Lichtburg was a special experience, as they enthusiastically rooted for Anthony and his amusing predicament.
A more serious story for this age group was presented in the animated film MÛ (Germany, 2023), which Malin Neumann painstakingly drew over three years in delicate colors. The film portrays a child facing water scarcity, aided by a giant otter in a quest for water. After a long journey, the child must brave the treacherous final stretch alone, climbing a snow-covered mountain with a hat full of melting snow. Unaware that the melted snow has become water lost along the way, the child returns empty-handed to a water-giving sculpture surrounded by withered plants. Left with only tears, the child's weeping moves the deity to weep as well, causing tears to flow and restore greenery to the surroundings. Malin Neumann drew inspiration from Nammu, the Sumerian goddess of the primordial sea, highlighting the child's loneliness during the journey with delicately played guitar as the sole musical accompaniment.
In the 12+ program, the documentary ENTRE LES AUTRES (Marie Falys, Belgium, 2023) was profoundly moving, skillfully capturing various facets of protagonist Adèle's life with sensitivity, while respecting her privacy. Whether with her family, skateboarding, or through old family films, glimpses of her identity emerge, revealing new dimensions of her being. Adèle has retreated into herself, grappling with questions of self-discovery and identity. The camera delicately portrays a vulnerable young woman finding solace within her family, where she can openly express her doubts, fears, and dissatisfaction with her body.
In a unique approach, SMERTETERKSEL (Warrior Heart, Marianne Ulrichsen, Norway, 2024) portrays Vilja's quest for identity and her place in life. Left alone at home with her depressed father while her mother embarks on a new relationship, Vilja is determined not to emulate her mother. She presents herself as a confident wrestler, but even in this role, she is confronted by her limitations, as she fears pain and easily gives up in fights. Undeterred, she trains rigorously with a wrestling dummy. Unexpectedly, Thea, her mother's new boyfriend's daughter and a wrestler, gives Vilja the encouragement she needs to discover herself. As Vilja confronts her fear of pain during their wrestling matches, she not only triumphs in the sport but also begins to accept that setbacks and pain are inevitable parts of life and growing up.
Reflecting on our jury work, I found the experience remarkably harmonious. We quickly identified films we didn't resonate with, and our personal favorites aligned closely. It was intriguing that despite differing perspectives, we converged on similar outcomes. Ultimately, our deliberation centered on three films: BOATPEOPLE, LULINA E LA LUA, and THE OLD YOUNG CROW. We favored the latter for its complexity and the seamless blend of animation and live action.
Oberhausen was truly memorable, offering a wealth of high-quality children's films. Viewing sessions with schoolchildren were particularly impactful. The 6+ screenings at a packed Lichtburg cinema were especially memorable, as young viewers engaged deeply, asking insightful questions and showing genuine enthusiasm. They synchronized with the music through clapping and movements, applauded scenes, and expressed their joy in various ways.
Translation: Johan H. Roeland
