THE BOY AND THE CROW

Short Talk with Tudor Om (director)

Romania / 2023 / 2’48’’

BEST ANIMATION FILM Category

21st IN THE PALACE International Short Film Festival 2024

Synopsis: In an open field with the grass swaying in a strong wind, we see a single scarecrow, a boy with a scratch on his face and a crow with blood on its beak. The crow has tasted his blood and the boy is left with only one choice: fight or flight! It's a simple and moving story about a very specific moment in time. The moment you face Fear.

Biography: Tudor Om is a writer, director, producer and animator. He is the co-creator of the TV Series "Animat Planet Show", director and animator of multiple music videos, commercials and experimental works. Executive producer and writer on shorts such as "Sasha" and "The Best Customer". As a director and producer he has 3 shorts under his belt (Pro TV Loves You, Travis, The Boy and the Crow and Hot Dog). His first feature film "Hotel Lumiere" is currently in production. 

Tudor Om, director

In The Palace: Was the theme of death and rebirth a conscious choice or an aim that you had?

Tudor Om (director): It was more like an unconscious theme that fits into everything I do. All of my projects have some sort of death and transformation involved in it, even if it is commercial or just something artistic. So, I guess, it pops up again.

In The Palace: What did you want to say with your film?

Tudor Om: Well, whatever I need to say, I think is said in a very short time. The movie is just 2 minutes and 48 seconds long, but one thing that also comes across is the fear. The boy is facing his fears and also a violence, the threat of violence and acceptance of it, because he does not run away from it, in the end he chose to face it. So, even if the violence is immediate and unescapable, he decides to face it, which leads to his transformation.

In The Palace: In the end we see that he is not only alive, but his eyes are glowing. Is it like he found a new sense of power?

Tudor Om: Maybe, but it is not necessarily power, but actually freedom, I think. Now he is a crow as well.

In The Palace: Can you tell us more about the animation style that you used?

Tudor Om: This is actually my first hand drawn animation that I had done, I get images of the look of a certain project and I can not escape it. I think this one fits the animation with its dark and bright shadows, even the bright shadows are not warm, everything is cold and I think it plays well with the theme of the film.

In The Palace: What came to you first: the image, or the message?

Tudor Om: Actually the story came to me 15-16 years ago, and was inspired by floating images. While I was shopping in Berlin in the building there were televisions all over the place, and they were displaying a music video. I just got a glimpse of something black and white. Those images got stuck with me and I did the story for them, then I froze the project and put it in the drawer, because I did not think that the idea was necessarily good for me to make. Then, last year, I was broke and I had a lot of time on my hands and I was like: “What am I going to do?”, so I revisited this project, changed the story, edited it and cutted it out. I guess, I did not know at the time, when I conceived the thematic of it, but 16 years later I just transformed it into this tight little story. I had completely forgottenabout it and maybe it took so much time for the film to mature in the back of my head, but it became clearer to me now what the project needed in order to work.

Author's view (Petar Penev):

Told with dark, bleak, yet somewhat ethereal visuals, director Tudor Om explores how violence breeds copies of itself in the world in the animated short The Boy and the Crow. Beginning with a simple, life-like tone, the story quickly shifts toward elements of magical realism, leading to a violent, gory, yet poetic climax.

While it may seem straightforward in its presentation, the film more than makes up for it with great, simple, action-driven storytelling, placing a strong emphasis on metaphorical elements. Combined with a heavy atmosphere and crushing sound design, it successfully achieves the director’s goal: reaching the soul of the viewer.

 its short runtime, the fable-like storytelling and Tartakovsky-esque animation style make the film accessible to a wider audience, allowing them not only to connect with it but also to relate its themes to their own daily lives.