Pachyderme (2023)
Pachyderme Review
Pachyderme is a 2023 animated short film directed by Stephanie Clement. It’s an overly dark film.
Like every summer, Louise stays at her grandparents in the countryside for a few days during the holidays. It will snow at the height of summer and a monster is going to die. This short film starts off with a nostalgic tone, but ends with a haunting, disturbing feel that signaled something much darker happening beneath its gorgeously animated landscapes and interiors.
The short is very much about child abuse. That is its main metaphor as it becomes clear pretty quickly that the grandfather is somehow abusive to this young girl. Of all the things that you can depict in a film, child abuse should be your last option, which just goes to show how unnecessarily bleak even animation has become in recent times. I did respect the visual style here that was charming and gorgeous. The imagery is quite memorable too. But the narration was more frustrating than anything else and the movie’s subject matter was too dark for me with the ending not capping off the story in any meaningful way.
