The Silence Beneath The Bark

In this animated short film from Parisienne Joanna Lurie, two odd-looking subterranean creatures emerge from their hiding holes to wander around a snowy forest landscape, eating snowflakes and dancing in the white landscape.

Their adventure together turns out to be a strange, short and bittersweet one. Lurie's film won Best Animated Short honour at The Worldwide Short Film Festival this year, so something special is to be expected.

At more than 11 minutes long, Lurie's film is longer than most shorts and stretches the attention span somewhat. However, the painterly 3D animation style draws the viewer in, so effectively does it depict a fantastical landscape where snow covered trees stretch up way beyond the confines of he camera, where snowflakes dab gently into the surfaces of lakes and the tiny creatures leave gentle footprints behind them.

It is like something from a dreamy children's fairy tale illustrated book.The sound design also comes up to the same level as the animation: trees creak and groan under the weight of snow, the creature jabber to each other in a strange tongue, the wind howls. Highly recommended.