Watch: Beautiful Animated Short Film ‘Conversations With a Whale’

Watch: Beautiful Animated Short Film ‘Conversations With a Whale’

by Alex Billington
August 8, 2022
Source: Vimeo

It’s always hard to take rejection. No matter how successful you are, no matter how many times you’ve been rejected, it still stings. Conversations With a Whale is a stop-motion animated short film made by Anna Samo (now known as Anne Bergmann) – it’s a self-referential meta story about an artist’s demons dealing with rejection, including printed out versions of her own rejection letters from film festivals. In this love letter to artists, their art, and its audience, a filmmaker’s constant rejections surprisingly bear fruit. “Anna Samo, or her animated alter ego in Conversations With A Whale, has a charming appearance that evokes memories of ‘The Little Prince‘: the crown, the cape, essential questions surrounding one’s own existence and a wee plant that is taken care of with lots of love are there.” This is beautifully animated and uplifting, putting a positive spin on bad news. I was expecting more voiceover, but it’s quite powerful as a silent film.

Thanks to Vimeo Staff Picks for the tip on this film available online. Synopsis via Vimeo: “In this love letter to artists, their art and its audience, a filmmaker is confronted with rejection after rejection until, at last a beautiful fig tree bears sweet fruits. Conversations with a Whale was created directly under the camera lens, using various analogue animation techniques.” Conversations With a Whale is both written and directed by Russian animation filmmaker Anna Samo (now Anna Bergmann) – see more of her work on her Vimeo or visit her official website or follow her on IG @samoanimation. Produced by Tom Bergmann and Anna Samo. Featuring music by Merche Blasco. This official premiered at the 2020 Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia a few years ago, and it also won Best German Animation at the 2021 Festival of Animation Berlin. For more info on the film, visit Vimeo or its official site. To discover more shorts, click here. Your thoughts?

Find more posts: Animation, Short Film, To Watch