Cafard

Jan Butheel’s feature-film debut deals with the First World War, like a series of other animated productions in recent years (“Adama”, “25 April”). Jean Mordant has just been named the Wrestling Champion of the World when he receives terrible news: his daughter living in occupied Belgium is brutally raped by German soldiers. Beside himself with rage and pain, he swears to avenge his daughter and enlists as a volunteer in the “Autos Canons Mitrailleuses” (ACM), a prestigious elite division of the Belgian Army. His nephew and his coach accompany him with the ACM troops deployed on the Yser Front. As the war continues on and on, never seeming to end, Mordant gradually begins to lose his faith in justice. Little by little, the soldiers are deferred as far afield as Russia, where they experience the outbreak of the October Revolution and the civil war, and then embark on the longest possible journey back home – via Siberia, China and the USA. The protagonists in “Cafard” are fictitious, but the incidents they witness are real. The film contains numerous historical details – including a performance by the Ballets Russes in Paris, the Spanish flu and the parade in New York in May 1918. Butheel’s work has been completely realised in motion-capture technique, which allows him to omit the customary storyboard for animation films and instead use live-action footage with real actors. The minimalist aesthetics are inspired by comic books and expressionist painting and bring computer games to mind. The effect of the criticism implied in the film unfolds especially in the war scenes. Maimed corpses are scattered about, as if they were merely the prize on the way to the next level in a computer game – in “Cafard” they become an impressive testimony to the real tragedy of war. “Cafard” was honoured with the Grand Prix at HAFF 2016 in Utrecht. 
Voices: Wim Willaert, Dinara Drukarova, Maarten Thomas Ketels, Sebastien Dewaele