Pachyderme

Pachyderme is a 2022 French animated short film directed by Stéphanie Clément. Blending traditional and computer animation, the film is a subtle narrative about a young girl's survival of childhood abuse. The animation creates a visual metaphor for the dissociative nature of the trauma she suffers. It features the voice of Christa Théret.^[3] It won Best Short Film at the Manchester Animation Festival and Best Animated Short at the Foyle Film Festival,^[4][5] and was nominated for Best Animated Short Film at the 96th Academy Awards.^[6][7][8]

Pachyderme
Release poster
Directed by	Stéphanie Clément
Written by	Marc Rius
Produced by	Thomas Giusiano[1] Mathieu Rey[1] Marc Rius[1]
Starring	Christa Théret
Edited by	Stéphanie Clément[2]
Music by	Olivier Militon[1]
Animation by	Marthe Delaporte (3D)[1] Jérémy Ortiz (3D)[1] Marine Vaisse (3D)[1] Marc Robinet (2D)[1] Mina Convers (2D)[1] Morten Riisberg Hansen (2D)[1]
Color process	Color
Production companies	TNZPV Productions Folimage
Distributed by	Miyu Distribution
Release dates	24 April 2022 (2022-04-24) (Festival national du film d'animation) 12 June 2022 (2022-06-12) (Arte)
Running time	11 minutes[1]
Country	France
Language	French

Synopsis

A young woman remembers her vacations to the countryside to stay with her grandparents. The story is told in fairytale-like, concise animations based on children's books, which ambiguously and subtly create an eerie atmosphere, where the young girl perceives the grandfather as a silent, foreboding presence. The film shows the girl's unsettling room where she tries to kill "monsters". She is frightened by the knots of wood in the ceiling that resemble eyes, and the creaking of the old wooden floorboards at night. The way there is indicated by the tusk of a pachyderm. One day she pricks herself with a fishing hook and her grandfather gives her the "healing kiss". Although it wouldn't hurt anymore, she would smell her grandfather's saliva all day long. He removes her bike's training wheels and takes her to a lake where a woman has already drowned. At night he would take her into the forest, where she had to be very quiet to listen to the forest animals. One day he enters her room and she tries to sink into the wallpaper to hide. Her grandmother, however, repeatedly emphasizes that her room is safe and that nothing can happen to her at their home.

One day it snows in the summer and her grandfather dies. That same night, the tusk is broken and later glued back together by her grandmother. Afterwards, the girl rarely visits her grandmother. After her grandmother's death, the girl matures into womanhood and attempts to free herself from the trauma of her childhood by sinking the tusk into the lake. But the lake can never be deep enough.

Production

"I sought to create images that would inspire in the viewer a mixed feeling of gentleness and unease. By introducing, for example, a sense of disquiet through framing and composition. The sky is virtually non-existent in the film. When the sky is present, it is obstructed by an element – the grandparents' house, a tree, etc. – to evoke the character's lack of escape. The little girl is a prisoner, trapped in a play of frame-within-a-frame, the outline of a door or a window. She is often fragmented in the shot, her upper body separated from her lower, as if dispossessed of herself. Sometimes, it's her eyes that are cropped out, as the sign of a forbidden."

—Stéphanie Clément^[9]

Stéphanie Clément and screenwriter Marc Rius both originate from Provence. The project began from their shared desire to work together and approach the topic of incest. They worked to craft a film based on various psychological defense mechanisms, such as dissociation and repression. According to Clément, their story focuses on "an emotionally anesthetized character who struggles with their own memories". They chose the remoteness of the south of France as their setting and wanted the narrative to reflect the "banality" of everyday life there. They also adapted the film's color scheme to capture the landscape of the region. They used dreamlike imagery and symbolism to ensure viewers were more receptive to the difficult subject matter and to further evoke different feelings in the viewer.^[9][10]

Pachyderme was produced by Tu Nous ZA Pas Vus (TNZPV) Productions and Folimage. It received support from the Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC), Arte France, Région Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Région Grand Est, Département de la Haute-Savoie, Département de la Drôme, Valence Romans Agglo, and SACEM in association with the Maison du Film.^[1] The film blends 2D animation from the Folimage studio with the Blender CGI technology of TNZPV Studio's 3D teams.^[3][11]

Release

The film premiered on 24 April 2022 at the Festival national du film d'animation in Rennes.^[12] It was broadcast in Germany and France on 12 June 2022 through the Arte television channel.^[13] It was also screened in the official competition at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on 13 June 2022.^[14] Distribution was handled by Miyu Distribution.^[1]

Reception

Accolades

Award	Date of ceremony	Category	Recipient(s)	Result	Ref.
Academy Awards	10 March 2024	Best Animated Short Film	Stéphanie Clément and Marc Rius	Nominated	[15]
Animafest Zagreb	11 June 2022	Grand Prix – Short Film	Pachyderme	Nominated	[16]
Annecy International Animation Film Festival	18 June 2022	Cristal du court métrage		Nominated	[17]
		Prix du jury SensCritique		Won	[18]
Foyle Film Festival	27 November 2022	Light in Motion Competition – Best Animated Short		Won	[19]
Manchester Animation Festival	18 November 2022	Best Short Film		Won	[20]
Meknes International Animated Film Festival	8 March 2023	Grand Prix		Won	[21]
Nice European Short Film Festival (Un Festival C'est Trop Court!)	14 October 2022	Prix Courts d'Ici		Won	[22]
Voix d'Étoiles – Festival international des voix du cinéma d'animation	29 October 2022	Étoile du meilleur court métrage		Won	[23]