Splash

Berlinale Shorts 2019

The camera falls into the water. A man without arms stands at the edge of the pool and fishes the diving goggles out of his trousers with his foot. Like an animal, he bites the hand of a woman standing next to him. A package is opened. A jump in the water, followed by a splash! It is the exploding of a bomb, marking the transition of life to death. With a precise montage of a few sound elements, animated images and framing, Shen Jie tells of borderlines and possibilities. Who holds whom and when? The linear narrative is suspended. Urgency and restlessness are inherent features of the film. The images are inspired by the work of British painter David Hockney whose famous work, ‘Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)’ was auctioned in November 2018 – at a price that has never before been paid for the work of a living artist.
Shen Jie belongs to a young generation of independent animation filmmakers in China who are gaining international acclaim.

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by Shen Jie People’s Republic of China 2019 Without dialogue, English intertitles 9’ Colour

Crew

Written and Directed by	Shen Jie
Cinematography	Shen Jie
Editing	Shen Jie
Sound Design	Luo Keju

World sales

Parallax Films

https://parallaxchina.com/ https://parallaxchina.com/

Produced by

Shen Jie

Shen Jie

Born in Shanghai, China in 1989, he graduated from the Shanghai Institute of Technology in 2012. His short films have screened at film festivals around the world including in Venice, Sakhalin, Tampere, Annecy and Zagreb. He lives and works in Shanghai.

Filmography (short films)

2012 Run! 2013 Stammer · Horse 2015 Ya · Monkey 2016 Panda 2019 Splash

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2019