NOTE: From September 12 – 19, I attended the CICFF to watch New Dimensions, their newest festival program for young adults 18 – 25 years of age. This is one of the two short reviews I will write on my favorite entries from the festival.
Directed by João Gonzalez, Ice Merchants is a Portuguese animated short the tells the story of a father and son who live in a house far up an icy mountain. They make ice and parachute down into the village below to sell it each day. However, the climate starts to warm and the water stops freezing. Worse still, the snow above them melts and loosens, causing an avalanche to damage their home. All the while, the father has to deal with the grief of losing his wife.
The film’s most apparent strength is its style. Simply put, the art is beautiful. The animation is dynamic and fluid and eye catching. Beyond that, the beauty of original score is also immediately apparent. It is stunning and establishes the tone of the film and fits its narrative excellently. It is deeply emotional, while not falling into the pitfall of being sentimental and emotionally manipulative.
But what blew me away the most is its mastery of visual storytelling. The film is without dialogue. We know the man lost someone he loves by what we see, not what we are told: the yellow cup that sits at the spot across from him at an empty spot at the table, the empty space next to him in his bed.
But the most powerful example of this comes at the very end. Each time the father and son parachute into the town, we see their (respective) red and orange hats fly off. At the end, we see them standing by the mountain of their lost hats. The bottom of the mountain is made up of yellow and red hats. As the camera tilts up, we start to see orange hats mingled in. But by the top of the mountain, the yellows have disappeared. The implication is. We see the man and his son lying in this mountain, as the man squishes the empty place next to him.
Ice Merchants touches on so much in so little time: the bond between a father and son, the effects of the climate crisis, and above all, grief.
