The Crossing

For her first feature-length animation, Florence Mialhe employed a technique she had already mastered in her short films: painting directly onto glass plates, and then photographing and reworking them frame by frame. It’s a demanding process for a feature-length production, but the impressive result, The Crossing (La traversée), was worth it: the loose yet realistic painting style literally and figuratively adds texture to the story of young refugees, forced to flee their native village in search of a safe haven.

From a fictional Eastern European country, which given the circumstances inevitably calls to mind Ukraine, Kyona and her younger brother Adriel flee westward. Hunted by militias and soon separated from their parents, they have no choice but to continue through dangerous territory, where one moment they are confronted by cruel profiteers, the next by the kindness of strangers.

The precise place and time have been deliberately kept vague, but the events are partly inspired by Miailhe’s own family history; they also combine elements from present-day reality with age-old fables – the original, gruesome ones. Melancholic music and subtle sound design carry the viewer along on this involuntary odyssey, which at times is taken over by moments of almost pure animation, as when during a frightening crossing, wild, painted waves fill the frame. Won a special mention in Annecy and audience awards in Bucheon and Zagreb.