Pubert Jimbob
2024 · 15m · Belgium
Directed by Quirijn Dees
Genres: animation, dark comedy, surrealism
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, surreal
A young man lured from his home by a mysterious figure enters a strange reality and helps Nadine, a lump with a mouth, in a surreal animated dark comedy.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A lump with a mouth that needs helping—this is the kind of premise that makes every other scout nervous, which is exactly why it works. Dees commits to the bit so thoroughly that the absurdity becomes the emotional core, and that's the move.
The surrealist lineage here is clear (Švankmajer's fingerprints, perhaps), but the execution leans heavily on novelty-shock rather than the formal precision that would elevate this into the conversation with its influences.
The decision to make Nadine a featureless lump instead of a conventionally sympathetic character—and then actually make you care—hinges entirely on voice performance and sound design, and whatever Dees landed there is the whole film.
Reviews
Synopsis: Pubert Jimbob, a young man, enters a strange reality after getting lured away from his home by an enigmatic figure, who throws him a lighter. Jimbob meets Nadine Rijpfoot, a lump with a mouth, and brings her to the hospital, where he eats her surgically removed 'bluehead'.