Emily (2018)

Directed by: Marlies van der Wel | 8 minutes | short film, animation |

The Netherlands animation country once again has a strong trump card with the short film ‘Emily’. The film by director Marlies van der Wel tells the story of flower seller Emily. At the age of eighty she surveys her life and the people she encountered in it. Although she has met many clients over the years, it has never left her with true friends or love. Soul alone, she retreats each evening to her personal garden of life, on top of a nearby hill. And she muses on what never was.

But was she really that shut out? Or has the fear of true affection blinded her to the outside world? She may have been more loved than she could have ever imagined. Despite its limited running time, ‘Emily’ is an effective, colorful and layered film. Based on her work, Van der Wel can easily join other home-grown animators, such as Michael Dudok de Wit and the drawing collective Job, Joris and Marieke. The call for an evening-long polder animation only increases with these kinds of short films. Who dares?