ZOON
2022 · 4m · Germany
Directed by Jonatan Schwenk
Genres: animation, experimental, fantasy
Tones: contemplative, dark, sensual, surreal
In a dark swamp at the bottom of a nocturnal forest, a group of gleaming axolotls pursue lustful games, but the dynamic shifts with the arrival of curious sack-shaped bipeds who transform the creatures into facilitators of pleasure for these newcomers.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Plasticine axolotls and puppet sack-bipeds doing 'lustful games' in a swamp, four minutes. Schwenk's hybrid animation is unmistakable — I'll always make time for puppeteered eroticism that isn't trying to be polite.
Schwenk's plasticine axolotls coexisting with puppeteered sack-shaped bipeds — Sundance 2022, four-and-a-half minutes — sits beside Bestia and Sog in the contemporary sensual-surreal animation canon. Two animation techniques as two species is the precise formal idea.
Stop-motion plasticine axolotls puppeteered alongside fabric sack-bipeds is a hybrid where two animation techniques literally embody two species — and at 4:25 the conceptual density is right for the technique. Sundance premiere, 11.8K views; pure craft object.
Reviews
The combination of both techniques results in a unique and unforgettable aesthetic, further heightened by the exceptional sound design which adds another layer of impact to the overall experience.
In this enjoyable, off-beat animation, feasting on the natural world is given an otherworldly sheen, with bodies ascending to the heavens and then evaporating, perhaps displaying the natural course of consumption.
Festivals
- Sundance Film Festival 2022
- AFI FEST
- Telluride Film Festival
- Palm Springs International ShortFest
- Ottawa International Animation Festival, Award Winner
- Animafest Zagreb
- Hiroshima International Animation Festival, Award Winner
- Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film 2023, Lotte Reiniger Promotion Award