Q&A with Director Alberto Vázquez

The Bears, engaged in an ongoing war with the Unicorns who they believe stole their ancestral land, are sent deep into the Magic Forest in search of a platoon that never returned from a previous mission. Deep behind “enemy” lines, the divide between two brothers, Tubby and Bluey, is exacerbated in the face of war.

Said by its director to be a cross between Bambi, Apocalypse Now, and The Bible, Alberto Vázquez’s nightmarish vision of Hell-on-Earth, contrasted with the cuddliest of teddy bears and most majestic of unicorns, is the newest arrival from one of the most evocative artists working in animation. Returning to Animation Is Film for the first time since 2017’s Birdboy: The Forgotten Children, Vázquez’s story contains visual and narrative references to Hamlet, Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and John Milton, and is as damning a portrait of war as anything you’ll see on-screen this year.

Presented in collaboration with the Latino Film Institute, LALIFF, and LatinX in Animation.

NOTE: Contains images of extreme violence, drug use, cannibalism, and full frontal bear nudity, and is recommended for Adult audiences only.

NOTE: The Q&A with Perlimps’s director, Alê Abreu, has been cancelled due to a scheduling conflict. We apologize for the inconvenience.  

One of two films in this year’s lineup set in enchanted forests (the other being the tonally opposite UNICORN WARS), Alê Abreu’s colorful, hand-drawn panorama is among the most visually stunning films of the year. In a world on the brink of destruction, Claé and Bruô, agents from rival kingdoms of the Sun and the Moon, must put aside their age-old conflict and find the elusive Perlimps (from “pirilampos,” Portuguese for “fireflies”) the only thing that can save the world. Presented in collaboration with the Latino Film Institute, LALIFF, and LatinX in Animation.

INTRO & Q+A w/ CO-DIRECTOR JI ZHAO!