Soundtrack: “Birthday” by Sugarcubes

This animation tells a slice of a little girl’s childhood. Her parents are busy with work and often have no time for her.

She often plays alone, in the house and in the backyard, where the sky and the grass are her best friends, and in her world everything is fantastical and bright: crooked houses, spiders that move around and glowing stars …… loneliness are quietly overshadowed by her naïve fantasies.

She was not aware of her loneliness; all she knew was that her world was full of dreamlike color and order. On her fifth birthday, no one celebrated her; her presents were spiders in her pockets and butterflies and flowers she chased after.

Through bright colors, distorted spaces and a visual language full of symbolism, I depict how a little girl responds to the void of reality with her fantasies, a world that seems gentle but with a hint of faint sadness.