An Essay on Determinism
Sometimes the best stories come from the most bonkers, batshit crazy situations.
When tragedy strikes, often, it leaves a scar too painful to look at that we either can’t stop looking at it and it dictates your life or you ignore and you do everything you can to forget it and it dictates your life. It’s a hard choice. You’re left with two options submit to this fate or do the opposite. Do something completely irrational and unpredictable that it breaks the cycle.
This is what the film is about. Fighting fate. Especially, when it feels like your fate is to live in drudgery and guilt. And in many ways, this is what the film is. An irrational (in all the right ways), unpredictable ode to finding purpose and meaning in a world void of meaning.
Noeufelle is a young man who, for the most part, is the embodiment of the typical young person. Lost, unguided and desperate to escape the uselessness of their situation. Part of the story is how a tragic event forces him into a path and how he fights his way out of it. The other, we’re not making this up, about a sentient hand that escapes a medical waste facility and tries to find its body. That’s it.
Filmmaker Jeremy Clapin, tells what seems like a simple story in the most imaginative way possible. The animation is truly unique. Some sequences are nothing short of awe inspiring. The most impressive one, involves a pigeon and the hand. It’s surprising how you can say so much without words.
We can’t recommend this film enough. It is, probably, the best animated film of the year and one of the best films of the year. If you’re looking for a film that is at the same time, visually explosive, artistic but manages to tell a story without going artsy fartsy. This film is your best bet.
We leave you with an afterthought. Do you feel trapped by fate? Helpless? If so, what do you do to counter it?