Away

A boy wakes hanging from a tree in his parachute, and behind him a black giant is slowly approaching. He finds a motorcycle and starts riding for the far end of the island, toward the sea. On the way there are birds, cats, desert, forest and abandoned structures, and not one word is spoken. Gints Zilbalodis made the film entirely alone: writing, directing, animation, editing and music. It took three and a half years, and those conditions shaped the form, with simple modelling and long unbroken camera moves scaled to what one person can make. The result does not read as a shortfall but as a language of its own. It won the prize in the Contrechamp section at Annecy. Who it is for: viewers who like dialogue-free animation and atmospheric road films. Who it is not for: anyone wanting story and character, since this rests almost entirely on feeling.