#HTE

A Gardener Spreads Joy Through the Cultivation of Lemon Trees in a New Animated Short

Laymun is a collaborative short film by directors Catherine Prowse (previously) and Hannah Quinn which follows the story of a gardener in a Middle Eastern war zone. The woman cultivates and spreads lemon trees as a way to bring hope to herself and community. The sets for the film were crafted from crumpled and sculpted paper over the course of six months, and the cut-out paper characters were scanned and added in digitally after the shoot. The directors chose this medium as a way to more accurately depict the tone they wished to bring across in their film.

“It was really important to us not to sentimentalize the ongoing violence in the Middle East and to communicate the precariousness of our character’s situation,” explain Prowse and Quinn. “So we explored the qualities of paper as a medium, crumpling and tearing to create a sense of fragility and vulnerability.”

The animated short has won several awards including the Royal Television Society Undergraduate Animation Award 2018, the International Animation prize at the Cardiff Mini Film Festival 2018, and the Short Film Prize at the World of Women Film Fair Middle East, among many others. You can see more of Prowse’s work on Vimeo and website in addition to Quinn’s work on her website. (via Short of the Week)