The Aroma of Tea (2006)

Directed by: Michael Dudok de Wit | 3 minutes | animation, short film

Michael Dudok de Wit is one of the most acclaimed animation filmmakers in the Netherlands. As early as 1994, he was very successful with his short film ‘The Monk and the Fish’, one of his first films that immediately earned him several accolades (including an Oscar nomination). His short film ‘Father and Daughter’ (2000) earned him ultimate recognition in the form of an Oscar for best short animation film, an award that opened doors for the Dutchman who now lives in England. He is the first non-Japanese director to make a film with the famous Studio Ghibli, ‘The Red Turtle’ (2016). That film was also highly appreciated in all corners of the world. Dudok’s films are characterized by their simplicity; with few or no words he knows how to tell universal stories and to create worlds that appeal to the imagination of many. That Dudok is a man of few words became clear when he picked up his Oscar for ‘Father and Daughter’ in 2001 and gave a very concise word of thanks. As a thank you for that short speech, the down-to-earth Dutchman received a HD television gift from The Academy of Motion Picture of Arts and Sciences. Dudok donated the device to charity.

A great example of Dudok’s creativity and his ability to achieve great results with very few resources is the three-minute experimental animation film ‘The Aroma of Tea’ from 2006. The title refers to the material that Dudok used to create his film: tea. In light and dark brown tones, he painted an organic, two-dimensional world where we follow a small dot, which moves rhythmically and deliberately through winding narrow corridors, via spirals and lines, along all kinds of shapes and sweeps, all the while ‘meeting’ similar dots. To the sounds of a classical sonata by Arcangelo Corelli, this dot moves towards a white space, in which it slowly disappears. You can hardly get it more abstract, nor simpler. Nevertheless, Dudok manages to capture our attention with minimal means. He leaves the meaning and interpretation of the film to his viewers. An obvious explanation is that ‘The Aroma of Tea’ is in a sense a metaphor for life: we are born, we plunge into the journey of our lives, only to disappear into the infinity of death.

But everyone can see something different in it. That is the great strength of this video. In addition, it remains miraculous how Dudok manages to capture our attention with such limited resources; we develop a kind of compassion for that speck. Although ‘The Aroma of Tea’ does not have the universal appeal of ‘Father and Daughter’ due to its experimental nature, it is a wonderful example of how genius Dudok’s work is in all its simplicity.