Meneath: The Hidden Island of Ethics (2021)

Using an almost doll-like style of stop-motion, this takes the perspective of a young native girl and introduces her to the perils of the seven deadly sins and the joys of those counter-balancing teachings like truth, honesty and humbleness. Like so much in real life, her initiation into her culture starts with a degree of indoctrination designed to induce a sense of fear, or at least a sense of obedience to a society that uses self-deprecation as a currency of choice. To reinforce that, this innocent youngter believes she is tainted by evil and so strives to correct that as she is exposed to greed, avarice, gluttony and then there's lust. That was the one that interested me more as it ought to have been harder to manifest through the eyes of this infant. Curiously, this chooses to represent her lustful feelings as if she were a man. It's a woman's body that's exposed. Is that to suggest that only men feel sexual longing and desire? Some of the symbolism is really quite simplistically effective as she is exposed to the controlling mental and philosophical influences of a society in which conforming is essential - but is that oppressive or nurturing? Can it be both? It's not without it's fun, but it's more it's pervasive creepiness that I felt more poignant as the two opposing devils and/or angels sat on the child's shoulders - one Christlike the other more traditionally maternal, and it's surprisingly provocative.