Reflective Encounters

“What first strikes the viewer of Tomek Ducki’s Plantarium is the director’s keen ability to build an effective and immersive world with very little by way of materials. Primarily stop-motion, the film is composited as though on planes, infusing the character animation with a rigged 2D sensibility. While visually quite distinct from Ducki’s preceding work such as 2013’s Baths (wherein two swimmers in the autumn of their years recall their youth via a rather ingenious visual motif), there are certain themes that remain present, both visually and thematically; the absence of distinct facial features granting the characters a sense of both anonymity and universal relatability, and the notion of age and youth being at loggerheads.

In the case of Plantarium this dynamic is less introspective and more directly combative, beginning with the almost Lynchian premise of a child birthed from a plant pot, whose existence immediately encroaches on what had seemed to be a peaceful way of life for the lonely gardener who encounters it. The child’s exuberance leads to conflict and codependence, with each stage of its development taking a physical toll on the gardener whose body, composed of loose fabric resembling flayed skin, is torn off in strips. The child’s increasing independence is interwoven with dominance, ultimately leading to a role reversal as he makes to depart the garden for good and leave his ailing parent in the dirt.”

— Ben Mitchell