VIFF 2021 has 3 excellent animated features that are not to be missed.
CHARLOTTE follows the tragically short life of a German Jewish artist from her life as a young girl in the 1930’s, through the rise of Nazism, and her escape to France during WWII. The film has a wonderful and talented cast of actors voicing the characters, including Keira Knightley, Marion Cotillard, Jim Broadbent, Eddie Marsan and Helen McCrory (in her final film). While living with her grandparents in France, Charlotte discovers her tragic family history with depression coursing through their bloodline. The movie is an inspirational, but emotionally intense experience. Charlotte created a sequence of hundreds of auto-biographical gouaches that are acknowledged as her masterpiece legacy to us, and at the end of the film we are treated to a wonderful parade of many of these actual paintings.
FORTUNE FAVORS LADY NIKUKU is a lovely anime film from Japan about a mother and her teenage daughter living on a boat in a small seaside village. This coming-of-age tale has several quirky characters, some fun musical moments and large amounts of delicious food. It is highly entertaining and filled with humour although at it’s core there lies hidden a tender touching emotional wallop. This was the audience award winner for best animated feature at Fantasia 2021. It is filled with heart and highly recommended to please the whole family, from restless teenager to grumpy grandad.
FORTUNE FAVORS LADY NIKUKU is a lovely anime film from Japan about a mother and her teenage daughter living on a boat in a small seaside village. This coming-of-age tale has several quirky characters, some fun musical moments and large amounts of delicious food. It is highly entertaining and filled with humour although at it’s core there lies hidden a tender touching emotional wallop. This was the audience award winner for best animated feature at Fantasia 2021. It is filled with heart and highly recommended to please the whole family, from restless teenager to grumpy grandad.
FLEE tells the extraordinary true story of Amin, a man forced to flee Afghanistan as a teenager with his mother and brother and his arduous journey to Denmark. Stuck in Russia they had to remain in hiding as undocumented refugees while trying to arrange with human traffickers to complete their escape. The film effectively features a couple of different styles of animation and some live footage. There are a lot of harrowing moments in their journey and a lot of difficult emotional moments in Amin’s remembering and recounting his story for the filmmaker. The film has already received award wins at 12 different film festivals, capped by the Grand Jury Prize at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.
