Who Are We?
1974 · 9m · Canada
Directed by Zlatko Grgić
Genres: animation, documentary, satire
Tones: absurdist, humorous, whimsical
In this animated short, a playful tour through the many phases and faces of Canadian history tests whether a single national identity can be defined, finding Canadians to be pragmatic and adaptable above all.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Grgić wraps a genuinely subversive question—can Canada even be defined?—in sugar-coated whimsy, which feels like a cop-out; the absurdist tone undercuts any real bite, and 'pragmatism' is just another way of saying 'nobody knows what we stand for.'
A formally rigorous essay-animation that traces Canadian identity through visual and tonal shifts with the precision of a practiced hand; Grgić's lineage runs through mid-century NFB experimentation, and this sits comfortably in that tradition of using the animated form to interrogate nationhood.
The genius move is letting the animation itself *become* the answer—each historical phase rendered in a subtly different visual language, so you're not hearing 'we adapt' but *seeing* it happen frame by frame, which transforms a potentially didactic premise into something lived and tactile.