On My Doorstep (Befetach Beity)
2010 · 6m · Israel
Directed by Anat Costi
Tones: melancholic, surreal, whimsical
A hand-drawn animated short following a young woman living in hermetic isolation who dons a protective cone — like those worn by dogs — before venturing outside her apartment to face the intrusions of daily life. Her carefully maintained defences are slowly compromised.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Cinéfondation Selection, Bezalel graduation, six minutes. A woman with a literal veterinary cone as social-anxiety armor. The concrete image is exactly the kind of metaphor short animation does well — and it sounds like it has the discipline to leave the image alone.
The first Israeli animated short accepted into Cannes Cinéfondation, this Bezalel Academy graduate film turns agoraphobia into a quietly inventive visual conceit executed entirely in hand-drawn animation.
Anat Costi literalising social anxiety through a single recurring image — a veterinary cone worn by a woman. Bezalel grad film, Cinéfondation selection; interiority as absurd physical armour.
Festivals
- Festival de Cannes 2011