The versatility and freedom of animation are sometimes able to capture the essence of emotion or psychology in a way that a live-action film never could. The central conceit of Sujin Moon’s 6-minute film, Persona, which was selected in the official competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, is that people don full bodysuits for all social interactions. It transforms her from her fatigued and sallow self into a beaming anime projection of twinkly-eyed happiness. It’s an idea that would be impossible to utilise in live-action, but Moon’s film uses its form to get to the heart of something preoccupying modern humanity with a surgeon’s precision.
It is perhaps not an especially new notion that we all wear masks, metaphorically speaking, but the imagery deployed in Persona is striking and unnervingly effective in visually translating the nature and impact of that phenomenon which can be hard to put into words. In the opening moments, the unnamed protagonist dries her hair in the bathroom while her ‘persona’ hangs, drip-drying in the shower, and later it sags around her midriff while she wrestles to get it on in a hurry. In two innocuous moments, the labour of being ‘on’ is made tactile and manifest. Elsewhere, there’s something grotesque in the detail and realism of the way that bath taps, or a vase of roses on the sideboard, are painted when compared to the cartoonish physiognomy that the protagonist clambers into.
Moon is not solely interested in the juxtaposition between the inward and outward facing, but also the erosion of the line between them. When the protagonist first looks at herself in the mirror, without her costume on, she is blurry and translucent. The extent to which the real individual, beneath the social façade, exists is called into question within the first 70-seconds. Later, her reflection is presented in sharp focus, but her facial features have disappeared. Perhaps Persona’s most chilling observation, reached in its delirious and disquieting finale, is the potential for the true internal self to be cast onto the bathroom floor, sublimated into the grinning outward appearances that we maintain for others’ benefit.
Director, screenplay, producer, animation: Sujin Moon Production company: KIAFA [AniSEED] (South Korea)
Venue: Official Short Competition, Cannes No dialogue 6 minutes