WALK A MILE IN MY SHOES

Short Talk with Monica Pascu (editor)

Romania / 2022 / 6’12’’

BEST ANIMATION FILM Category

21st IN THE PALACE International Short Film Festival 2024

Synopsis: Tired of his daily routine, Bobo feels being in someone else’s shoes would make him happier. The metamorphosis starts, but it proves out of control. Could the happiness Bobo pursues ultimately lead to profound dissatisfaction?

Biography: Laura Georgescu Baron is a film producer, director, and editor, a TV show creator, as well as an organizer of film festivals and cultural events. She graduated from the first promotion of the Multimedia Department (1993-1997) at the National University of Theatre and Film “I. L. Caragiale” (UNATC) in Bucharest, and she holds a Ph.D. at the same university, where she was a professor and protector (2014-2016). During her film career, she received several nominations and awards for her productions.

Laura Georgescu Baron, director

In The Palace: How did you choose these colorful accents that we see in the short?

Monica Pascu (editor): Basically, we have chosen aspects of the main character's daily life that need to be highlighted, like the hands and the feat, just to reflect on how this day is going for him.

In The Palace: Could you tell us more about the ending?

Monica Pascu: It is a quite simple ending, the idea is that all of us want to be different and sometimes we struggle to find someone who is the same as we are. There is a happy ending to this movie: we are finding this person.

In The Palace: Can you say that you can fit in someone else's shoes, or you can not?

Monica Pascu: Not exactly, the idea is completing with one another, to complement each other, rather than being the same. It is about finding something in others that we could not find in ourselves. The whole filmmaking process is about developing your own fantasies, developing your own thoughts.

In The Palace: There are all these scenes, where the main character's eyes and mouth get switched, is it because he is trying to be someone else?

Monica Pascu: Yes, he is struggling to fit in and to find himself, and when he finally accepts his nature, that is when he finds his perfect match.

Author's view (Petar Penev):

Told in a mostly simplified black-and-white sketch-like animation style this short takes the theme of running away from the self and takes it to a bloody and disturbing extreme when nothing goes as wanted. 
 
The film starts by establishing clear contrast between the colorful outside world and the bleak subjective reality of a man dissatisfied with what the order if nature has brought to him. The surrealist and Kafkaesque turn of events bring a couple situations to prove the main thesis – as the man undergoes multiple metamorphoses and is dissatisfied with each he turns a blind eye to how the rest of the world try to appreciate the many incarnations of his beauty. The insecurity of the protagonist seems to be coming not from objective facts but from a deep-rooted personal conflict with the self. 
 
What would it take for you to see yourself from the eyes of others?