Harald
2013 · 7m · Alemania
Directed by Moritz Schneider
Genres: animation, comedy, family
Tones: absurdist, tender, whimsical
Harald, a champion wrestler driven by his ambitious mother to win countless trophies, truly loves flowers — and when she takes away his favourite one day, he has to fight for it.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A wrestler who wants to nurture flowers should be maudlin schmaltz, but Schneider somehow makes the absurdist collision work — the film doesn't apologize for its own contradiction, which is the only way it survives.
The formal restraint here is admirable: animation that resists sentimentality through clean lines and deadpan staging, anchoring what could've been a greeting-card premise in something with actual tonal control.
That moment when Harald chooses the flower over the trophy — it lands because Schneider commits completely to the physical comedy of a hulking wrestler's tenderness, a single tonal choice that makes the whole premise breathe.