Rafael Sommerhalder

Short film shown in Cannes.

A roads leads through a barren desert landscape. A car parks in front of a motel. A man with a box under his arm gets out and storms into room 69…

A howling wolf, an embarrassing incident and a missed opportunity. Love is made of courage.

If there’s one thing farmer Olga loves more than her pet pigs, it’s a pork chop. When the pigs she butchers find that they can still influence events on the farm after their deaths, a vicious circle begins.

Palimpsest charts the changing lives of the interior of one house over a period of three centuries, a time-frame compressed into ten minutes - portrayed through a combination of time -lapse, real-time, and stop-frame photography. The camera is fixed as the 'space' inside the frame itself transforms, destructs and evolves over the years: historical eras are evoked through references to 17th, 18th and 19th century painting and early 20th century cinema and the human presence in the house is signalled through scenes of everyday labor and domestic duty.

Despite being broken in a snowstorm, a rickety scarecrow wakes to find a beautiful shell. But as the sound of the sea inside mesmerises him, the shell is stolen by a crow. Setting out to reclaim it, the scarecrow embarks on a poignant journey in this wonderful, but possibly saddest animation you’ll ever see. He just wants his shell back!

A short film about flower pots, and the problem with habits.