Typha
2015 · 3m · France
Directed by Yoann Oignet, Thomas Landrein, Aurelie Gomez, Jonas Genevaz
Genres: animation, coming-of-age, fantasy
Tones: contemplative, mythic, whimsical
A girl from a miniature village is chosen to carry the egg of life to the dying forest spirit.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
The premise is genuinely strange—a girl, a miniature village, an egg of life, a dying forest spirit—but it never commits to the weirdness; instead it retreats into whimsy, which is the kiss of death for subversion.
Four directors working in concert on a 3-minute animated fable suggests a studied approach to form, and the mythic tone situates it within a clear lineage of contemporary European fairy-tale animation, though the execution feels more decorative than rigorous.
The entire film pivots on the decision to animate the miniature village in such precise, doll-like detail against softer surroundings—it's a single spatial choice that transforms the girl's journey from generic coming-of-age into something genuinely disorienting and intimate.
Reviews
Wonderful animated short by Yoann Oignet, Thomas Landrein, Aurelie Gomez, and Jonas Genevaz. "Typha" follows a young girl assigned a special task that takes her into a world much bigger than she's used to.