Made in Spain
2016 · 12m · España
Directed by Coke Riobóo
Genres: animation, experimental, surrealism
Tones: contemplative, surreal, whimsical
A miniature metaphor of epic proportions unfolds on a sunny Spanish beach, animated in stop motion with H0-scale figures.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Stop-motion beach tableaux with toy soldiers sounds like twee nostalgia until you realize Riobóo is doing something genuinely perverse with scale and expectation—the whimsy curdles into something darker the longer you look.
A formally assured work that understands its debt to Švankmajer and the experimental animation canon while finding its own register; the constraint of H0-scale figures becomes a sophisticated formal language for interrogating narrative and perspective.
The decision to hold on static wide shots rather than cut into the miniature tableau—let the viewer's eye do the work instead of guiding it—transforms what could've been novelty into genuine contemplation.