La jeune fille sans mains

The auteur work in hand-drawn animation on paper was adapted from a little-known Grimm fairytale for adults, “Das Mädchen ohne Hände”. A poor miller succumbs to his greed and sells his beautiful daughter to the devil for riches. To demonstrate his obedience to the dubious benefactor, he must cut off her hands. Protected by her virtue (purity and innocence), she manages to evade the devil and leaves home on a fateful journey, sustained by her unwavering morale. As is usual with fairytales, the story follows dream logic and mesmerises viewers with poetry. Whereas the tale about the emancipation of the girl without hands is timeless, the visual language of the film is unprecedented: the subtle, calligraphy-like brushstrokes spellbind due to metamorphoses, breaks in perspective and changes of axes. The film is not merely an illustration of a fairytale, but rather the depiction of strong emotions, an explosion of forms and colours. Moreover, the music is a successful break in style: an electric guitar accompanies the medieval fairytale. Laudenbach’s feature film debut had the great honour of opening the ACID (Association du cinéma indépendant pour sa diffusion) section in Cannes this year. At the world’s largest and most important animation film festival in Annecy, the auteur film was honoured with the Jury Distinction Award in June. Fantoche can only concur with GKIDS, the US distributor from New York: “’La Jeune fille sans mains’ is a stunning example of the potential of the medium of animation as a powerful cinematic art form for adult moviegoers.”

Voices: Anaïs Demoustierr, Jérémie Elkaïm, Philippe Laudenbach