I wanted to focus for a bit on the first one, "Small Hands". At first, honestly, I thought it was a bit silly, because there was just a bunch of animals walking around. But then one by one, half of each pair was ripped away from the other, and when I saw the frog floating alone on his lily pad, the owl alone on the branch, or especially, the little rabbit shivering alone in the burrow, it completely broke my heart.
Now, obviously, the filmmaker's intentions were not to make us all feel sorry for animals across the world, make us despise the circle of life (though it did have that effect). I believe that the goal of this film was to explain the feeling of loss in the simplest and rawest (I think that's a word) of ways, and to make us realize that loss is inevitable, that it is a part of life.
I believe that this film accomplishes its goals in a number of ways. First of all, it was simple. The piece did not require any deep thinking, there was no plot beneath the surface. You just sat and watched, and if you're like me, tried not to cry.
There was also the fact that all of the characters in this film were animals (save the hunter). I believe that this does a lot for the film for a couple of reasons, one being that animals are innocent. Well, maybe innocent is not the right word, but surely, animals are not guilty. They do what they must to survive. There is no sin among animals, they don't deserve death like we humans do. Maybe it's just me, but it makes watching this film that much more heartbreaking. The second reason I believe the use of animals contributed so much to this film is that it showed us that tragedy is inevitable. Going back to what I said about animals having no sin - the snake and fox were not evil, they were just doing what they had to to survive (the hunter's case is debatable). This points to the fact that death is just a part of life.
The last thing that struck me about this film was the rain drops. Never really a constant rain, but individual drops throughout the film, sliding down plants and splashing just like tears.
The film has the effect of making you feel like a part of you had been ripped away. I'm sure this feeling is a lot stronger for some than it is for others. The thing is, this film doesn't introduce anything new. It just brings back memories and feeling, brings them back up from whatever dark corner of our minds we've stuffed them in, back to the surface, and it hurts. I mean, I'm sure we're all old enough now that we've all experienced some sort of tragedy, that we've all, at some point felt utterly alone, which is why, I believe, this film is so powerful, despite its simplicity.
So, those are my thoughts. Sorry it's so long :)
Nicely put Brianna.
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