Pachyderm (2024)

The young "Louise" cuts a rather sad figure playing at the rural home of her grandfather. Alone on the swing chasing a butterfly, and trying to sleep at night in a creaky, quite scary, house where she clearly wants to become invisible. Next day, she is to go swimming whilst her granddad fishes. The lake has almost Avalon-like qualities that seem to cause her to further retreat into herself - before she returns home to yet more curious creaking. In the morning, she awakens to discover that this is likely to be her last visit and as we piece together what we have seen over this last ten minutes - well maybe that's no bad thing. It's a classic style of animation, understated and delicate and the message, I thought subtle but clear.