Reflective Encounters

“With popular culture being such a minefield when it comes to representations of female body image, My Fat Arse and I is something of a breath of fresh air. Animator Yelyzaveta Pysmak eschews subtlety and goes for the bold and brassy approach as she tackles the subject with a confident insouciance whilst still acknowledging the struggles that many women undergo on a daily basis.

As our main protagonist strives to achieve her desired weight – which seems to bring with it an air of resigned emaciation rather than confidence– she finds herself drifting towards the plains of Slimbuttlandia, with posteriors rather more svelte than the ones alluded to in the film’s title.

Pysmak has a glorious sense of excess that is juxtaposed with a deceptively simple animation style. As the scratchy figures framed by a yellow background make their way across the screen, we’re bombarded with imagery and ideas from a cheeky section utilising the aesthetics of video games to an ending that has a sense of the triumphant.”

— Laurence Boyce