Reflective Encounters

“In 1980, Heikki Joon used a 16mm camera to create a stop-motion video of a motorcar race. Four decades later his son, Sander Joon inserts the footage into Sierra, named for the first car handed down to him by his father. It’s a visual ode to his upbringing and the connection he feels with his father through film, despite being forced to follow his father’s interest in racing.

Joon crafts three zones within the film. His mother waters plants in a greenhouse, and his father works on his car in the garage, while Joon plays on a tire swing between them. He visually signals the gendered differences and roles parents in post-socialist countries like Estonia often hold, and the distance this creates between them. The lack of communication between the couple is at the heart of the film, with Joon stuck in the middle.

Sierra beautifully incorporates the black-and-white stop-motion footage into a vibrant and colourful hand-drawn animated film. The medium allows Joon to mimic the hazy fluidity of memory through the film’s more surreal touches, such as a rogue moustache and a gang of frogs. Sierra is about the influence our parents have on us, and the need for children to find their own path as they grow up.”

— Lillian Crawford