Review: Pregnant (2015)

Directed by: Mascha Halberstad | 7 minutes | short film, animation, comedy | Original voice cast: Kay Greidanus, Sarah Bannier

Hardly two things can be more opposed than a dorm and pregnancy. You associate the one with hustle and bustle, going on until late at night, unhealthy food, drink and vomiting, with the other you think of early happiness, rest and sleep more than you are used to, healthy eating and drinking, and … okay, also to vomiting. Yet Mascha Halberstad combined those two extremes in a short, absurd and very entertaining video, ‘Pregnant’.

Location: an uncluttered student house. Tyn, a student and one of the residents, wakes up and opens the refrigerator. Much of the food contains a note from Maya, who tries to summon her housemates to stay away from it. Disregarding, Tyn opens a jar of pickles and moments later in the bathroom he pulls a pregnancy test from Maya from the packaging and then pees on it. At first he thinks it’s funny what he does, but then the test turns out positive …

In the intoxication that follows, Tyn falls from one emotion to another: from blind panic to endearment in the baby shop. And in that baby shop he meets a nice girl …

Mascha Halberstad is known for her stop-motion puppet animations and ‘Pregnant’ is no exception on her resume. The figures are recognizable ‘Mascha’, for those who previously enjoyed the moving ‘Hello Mr. de Vries’ or ‘Munya in me’. The sets are so rich in detail that one look is not enough. ‘Zwanger’ is not moving, but it is nice and crazy and made with patience and craftsmanship. More of this please!