Swallow the Universe
2021 · 12m · France
Directed by Nieto
Genres: action, adventure, animation, fantasy
Tones: absurdist, dark, surreal, whimsical
After a car accident kills his family, a young boy named Emiko wanders Manchuria’s jungles and discovers a mysterious Shinto power within his mouth that throws the animal kingdom into envious chaos.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Emaki-scroll-inspired Manchurian jungle saga where animals envy a child's mouth-Shinto powers — that is a sentence I needed to read twice. Genuinely strange, which is rare here.
Nieto draws directly from Japanese emaki horizontal-scroll manga to construct a grotesque animal-kingdom Manchurian phantasmagoria — the formal pedigree is precise and the surrealism committed. Genuinely strange.
Twelve minutes inspired by Japanese Emaki horizontal-scroll manga, blending 2D hand-drawn with 3D CGI in grand-guignolesque grotesque mode — that's a specific formal source for a specific kind of surreal animation. Nieto has a distinct voice; the Emaki scroll structure is a genuine craft signal.
Reviews
Films like Nieto’s Swallow the Universe make hitting this objective so much easier. If you come to Short of the Week looking for films that break new ground and subvert expectations, you’re going to love this.
The visuals of Swallow The Universe are mesmerizing to the point of being so drawn in by what’s happening, the story will become secondary to you.
Festivals
- Sundance Film Festival 2022
- Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival 2022, Special Jury Prize
- Animafest Zagreb 2022, Special Jury Mention
- Anima Brussels 2022, Award