Écorchée (Skinned)
2022 · 15m · France
Directed by Joachim Hérissé
Tones: contemplative, dark, surreal, tense
Two Siamese twins — one gaunt and skeletal, the other swollen and ravenous — live in isolation in a swamp house, bound together by a shared leg and opposing desires. At night, the skeletal sister suffers fever nightmares of being consumed by her twin’s flesh, and their simmering tension over freedom versus togetherness finally erupts into violence.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Siamese-twin sisters built from wool puppets that bleed during animal slaughter, decade in development — this is the kind of obsessive craft that deserves attention. In.
A decade-developed stop-motion fairy tale built from wool puppets that bleed and dissolve, sculpted by Aline Bordereau — the materiality alone places this in the Caroline Leaf / Quay Brothers lineage of textile horror. Singular.
Fifteen minutes of stop-motion built entirely from textile fabric puppets sculpted by Aline Bordereau, where wool literally bleeds during slaughter and dissolving stitches convey emotion — a decade in development rooted in the director's own childhood fever dreams. That's a singular craft achievement; Miyu Distribution confirms it.
Reviews
A stop-motion masterpiece. A macabre story of siamese twins, Hérissé’s twisted tale conjures a nightmarish world that elicits both fascination and fear.
Skinned is a movie that no one will easily forget.
Festivals
- Hiroshima International Animation Festival 2022, First Prize + Audience Award
- Sitges Film Festival 2022, Best Animated Short Film
- San Sebastián International Film Festival 2022, Audience Award — Best Animation Short
- Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival 2023, Prix SACD — Best French-Language Animation
- Filmfest Dresden 2023, Golden Horseman — Audience Prize
- Animafest Zagreb 2022