22nd Animation Division New Face Award

Am I a Wolf?

Animated short film

Amir Houshang MOEIN ［Iran］

Outline

A short animation film, based on a poetry by an Iranian children’s book writer Afsaneh Shaban-nejad, was produced at the Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (IIDCYA). Children are performing in school the familiar story of a wolf attacking herd animals. The scenes central to the piece is a nanny goat in grief for losing the yeanlings and an angry wolf face each other. The play ends when the wolf, hit by the lighting, falls into the river. After the show, while the children receive an applause, a child who played the violent wolf is shown crying by the river. The work, which is composed without any dialog, evokes thoughts among the viewers across the age and culture.
8 min.

Reason for Award

The performance of the wolf in the play featured in this animated film is so scary that it is easy to forget that it is just a play and experience real fear. In this experience of losing the boundary between reality and fantasy, the subject of fear grows to enormous proportions and closes in on the viewer with great force. The reality of this fear is depicted from a child’s perspective, and the experience of shivering with fear is genuine, with the knowledge that this is a play all but forgotten. Even after the play is over, the children that play the wolf role remain under the illusion that they are still wolves. For them, the reality of the fantasy is perhaps more powerful that reality itself. This animation, which accurately captures the psychology of children, is worthy of the New Face Award. (YOKOTA Masao)

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