Gwen and the Book of Sand // Animation Club

Dir. Jean-François Laguionie, 1985, 64m

“Why search the sand for answers? It has told us everything,” whispers Roseline, the 173-year old desert nomad narrator of French director Jean-François Laguionie’s hauntingly poetic animated feature of life after the apocalypse, where the few hardy survivors walk on stilts from well to well, scorpions glow like lanterns, and the mysterious Makou drops giant everyday objects – forks, eyeglasses, bathtubs – from the skies. Into this desolate science-fiction landscape, part-DUNE, part-FURY ROAD, emerges the story’s teenage heroine, Gwen, who refuses to stay silent and hide in the shadows – and whose love for teenage boy Nokmoon, kidnapped by the Makou and its followers, will drive her and Roseline on an epic journey across the endless sands, “the still silence of chaos and oblivion.”

A sublime and breathtaking masterpiece of world animation, painted in remarkable gouache images, GWEN… is on par with René Laloux’s FANTASTIC PLANET, Hayao Miyazaki’s NAUSICAÄ OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND and Mamoru Oshii’s ANGEL’S EGG as a visually stunning and truly otherworldly experience, interwoven with surreal and dreamlike moments: a pillow fight in the desert; phantom projections of red UFOs in the night sky; a mystery cult who worship an ancient product catalog and sing gorgeous hymns to fireworks and a watering can made of galvanized steel. Beautifully restored in 4K with the director’s participation for La Traverse Films in France and released for the first time ever in the U.S. by Deaf Crocodile.

In French with English subtitles.

ANIMATION CLUB is an ongoing series that celebrates new and classic animated films from around the world! From studio titans to hidden indie gems; traditional 2D to stop-motion, 3D animation, experimental, and everything in-between!

Host or Publisher Stray Cat Film Center