Nobody Nose Cleopatra
2017 · 6m · Francia
Directed by Anthony Trefleza, Aymeric Rondol, Chams Chitou, Charlotte Lebreton, Jonathan Salvi, Lucie Loiseau, Marc Razafindralambo, Maxime Monier, Mikahel Meah
Genres: animation, comedy, satire
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, theatrical
Cleopatra is furious that no painter can capture her nose to her liking. Ahmes, a painter's apprentice, must deliver a portrait to the queen, entering a palace echoing with the cries of those who have disappointed her.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A nine-director animated fever dream about a dictator's vanity becomes a surprisingly vicious satire of perfectionism and power—the kind of absurdist premise everyone else would've laughed off, and it actually *works*.
The theatrical staging and formalist use of negative space recall the lineage of political allegory in European animation, though the committee aesthetic occasionally dilutes the visual authority one might expect from a single auteur's vision.
What elevates this from concept-driven sketch to genuine short is the decision to let Ahmes's mounting dread play out in almost silent reaction shots—the apprentice's face becomes the entire emotional architecture of the film.