Shirin Sohani and Hossein Molayemi’s delicately wrought animation, In the Shadow of the Cypress, depicts a difficult familial relationship.
A father and daughter live in a small house by the ocean, physically and emotionally isolated – from the outside world and one another. The father is a former sea captain who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder that comes crashing unbidden into their humble home in irresistible waves. When one day a whale is beached right outside their door, the duo is forced to confront the enormity of what ails their lives. Combining a bruising psychological realism with some wonderfully employed animated flourishes that seem to manifest the emotional tumult, Sohani and Molayemi’s film is a triumph.
The film drops us directly into the middle of an episode in which the father is lashing out violently. A window of the house already sports a historic crack that has been mended but is now shattered by something being hurled through it. His fit of anger is uncontrollable and as his daughter attempts to calm him he throws her to the ground – this is the final straw. She decides she can no longer stay at their home, but when she goes to leave the following morning, she is faced with the whale stuck on the coastline. While she is adamant about saving the whale, her father becomes frustrated as their efforts fail, and retreats to his old, wrecked ship – a mausoleum anchored just offshore.
Given its lack of dialogue, weighty themes, and the leviathan of a metaphor at its centre, In the Shadow of the Cypress manages to be impressively understated. The work done on the depiction of the two characters is excellent, but it is in the external representations of inner conflict that the film is truly poignant. In the early scene where the daughter leaves, the father briefly splinters into a thousand pieces – echoing the smashed glass and mirrors – and attempts to block her path, reforming when she pulls away. Similarly, an icy cold envelops his skin in moments of high anxiety, and jagged monochrome flashes interrupt the animation to evoke the shock of flashbacks. Sohani, Molayemi, and the rest of their animation team expertly deploy the tools of their trade to conjure an almost bodily experience of the father’s turmoil, making their film an intensely affecting portrait of suffering and love.
Directors, screenplay, producers: Shirin Sohani, Hossein Molayemi
Editing: Hossein Molayemi
Animators: Azad Maroufi, Hessam Javaheri, Hossein Molayemi, Reyhaneh Sadat Mirhashemi, Sepehr Momeni, Mehdi Torabi
Sound: Hossein Ghoorchian
Music: Afshin Azizi
Production: Barfak Animation Studio (Iran) Venue: Venice Film Festival (Orizzonti – shorts)
No dialogue
20 minutes
