Ecorce (Peel)
2020 · 15m · Switzerland
Directed by Samuel Patthey, Silvain Monney
Genres: animation, documentary
Tones: contemplative, tender
In a hidden retirement home in Fribourg, Switzerland, the quiet daily routines of elderly residents — medication rounds, meals, rest — unfold through sparse hand-drawn pencil animation. A wordless, empathetic portrait of aging in which the film's minimal movement mirrors the slowed, imperceptible passage of time experienced by its subjects.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Pencil animation that deliberately refuses to move, mirroring the residents' time. That's a real formal proposition, not decoration — Swiss retirement home as endurance piece.
Patthey and Monney deliberately violate animation's demand for motion — pencil stillness mirroring the residents' experience of slowed time. The Wood of the Dead nearby; an animated documentary of genuine philosophical commitment.
Deliberately violating animation's core demand for constant motion to mirror the residents' slowed time perception — that's the rarest possible formal commitment in animation and 43K views with 636 likes says it works. The wordless pencil approach is exactly right for end-of-life subjectivity.
Reviews
Their leisurely approach captures this world with real tenderness and empathy.
We wanted to capture what is time for those residents...we stretched the scene as long as possible, and tried to get the feeling and rhythm of time. We really fought against the rules of animation.
Festivals
- Annecy International Animation Film Festival 2021, Cristal for Best Short Film
- Animatou 2021, Best Animated Documentary
- Monstrale International Short Film Festival 2021, First Prize Short Documentary