Bones (2018)

Directed by: Elise Eetesonne | 5 minutes | short film, drama, animation | Original voice cast: Nikki Deras, Jeroen Blom, Andy Fontyn

Fortunately, they still exist: filmmakers who put their whole soul and bliss into a stop-motion project. ‘Boating’ is one such project, where the figures and sets only exist because someone has made them by hand. Elise Eetesonne, a student at the Royal Institute for Theater Cinema & Sound in Brussels, made her master film ‘Botvieren’ (2018) using the irresistible stop motion animation technique. The screenplay of ‘Bovieren’ is by Lotte Lola Vermeer.

Lengthy waiting lists, high costs, opaque rules regarding reimbursements by health insurers. There is a lot wrong with mental health care and ‘Bovieren’ subtly comments on that. The main character of this short film is Sara, a young woman who enters a waiting room, hoping for prompt treatment. Compared to the other people in the waiting room, however, there is nothing serious about her outwardly, so let the doctor wait. When Sara finds out, she takes a drastic measure.

‘Founcing’ is short, but those who can read between the lines will understand the subtle message. Someone with a mental disorder can be just as sick, or perhaps even sicker, as someone with a physical illness. So don’t judge a book by its cover, or rather: don’t be prejudiced at all, especially when it comes to diseases. The figures in ‘Botvieren’ are made of fabric, felt or wool and therefore the film is reminiscent of the work of, for example, the Flemish Emma de Swaef and Marc James Roels (‘This Magnificent Cake!’, ‘Oh Willy…’), or the Dutch Mascha Halberstad (‘Pregnant’, ‘Munya in me’) or Nina Gantz (‘Edmond’). But Elise Eetesonne shows enough idiosyncrasy in this film to make ‘Bovieren’ a nice calling card.