Howling (2021)

Directed by: Lewis van der Werf | 2 minutes | short film, animation

‘Howling’ is about a wolf who has been fatally injured. With only three legs intact, it drags itself through an inhospitable area. Flashbacks show us – as if we could read his mind – what brought him into this situation.

Ultrakort is a competition program in which a selection of filmmakers are given the opportunity to showcase their talents by making a short animation film of no more than 2 minutes. Thanks to this program, Dutch animation talent can develop and they get the chance to show their work to a large audience in a simple way. The films that are selected eventually end up in the cinema – and since 2021 – also in the movie theaters, which of course only increases the target audience.

‘Howling’ by Lewis van der Werf and production company il Luster is one of the films that received the green light in 2021 and it is easy to see why this is. The atmosphere in this film is well struck; a dark forest, ominous music, a protagonist who is visibly suffering. What happened, of course, does not remain a secret for long, but due to the rapidly succeeding images it remains somewhat mysterious. The animals are not lifelike animated, as you see in some expensive productions, where you could count the hairs in the fur when you freeze the image; no, these beasts have a somewhat angular fur. That doesn’t make them any less attractive, it’s the eyes in which the emotions are hidden. Beautiful and sad, but thanks to a touch of mystery also hopeful.