EATING IN THE DARK
DIRECTED BY INARI SIROLA
UNITED KINGDOM // 2021
10 MINS
Through snakey dildos, and a journey through a mind bending forest, we follow Siro's quest for self discovery.
Animated Encounters Jury comments:
Selecting the Best of British animation award at encounters Festival this year was an incredibly difficult decision with many great films eligible.
We spent two days going over a shortlist that we drew up, and one film just just kept coming back to us that somehow got under our skin and we couldn't stop thinking about. It had a unique visual, style and aesthetic, and narratively, it was incredibly unpredictable.
For those reasons we've selected Eating in the Dark by Inari Sirola as the best of British animated award.
Reflective Encounters
“The Finnish director Inari Sirola makes a bold statement with this plump animation, in which desire - sexual and commercial - is wrapped up with cuteness to expose the haunting needs within ourselves. A dildo bounces around a bar in a sex shop while other toys seem to taunt the protagiojnist, Siro, with winks. The visions get more deranged. A breast that weeps blood. Rocks that spell out the word ‘Loner’. A cushiony devil on Siro’s shoulder, seen from all sorts of suggestive angles, scolds her every choice.
The extraordinary bodies she presents, with long noses and pillowing torsos recalls the haunted visages of Scottish artist Rachel McClean. Where McClean lifts animation into reality through costume and CGI, Sirola’s use of movement to reshape and question the body brings a new sign of life to 2D animation. Constant video game arcade sounds and the softly sleek colour palette suggests a Japanese city setting. But it stays suggested, so Sirola doesn’t fall into tropes or cultural shorthand. Eating In The Dark is a free-flowing trip into the subconscious, but one where good humour presides above dream logic to satisfying, thought-provoking ends.”
— Ben Flanagan