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