Franco-Malian director Fan Sissoko said that the short animated film 'Sundruð – Hold It Together' stemmed from her desire to express emotions that words cannot describe, noting that resorting to magical realism was a way to give her the ability to embody internal conflicts and turn them into tangible visual images, bringing the film closer to the audience through a human language that transcends borders and cultures.

In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat via Zoom, Sissoko added that animation gave her a wide space to explore feelings of belonging and alienation in a way that traditional cinema cannot achieve, explaining that she always strives in her works to blur the boundaries between reality and imagination, because humans experience many of their emotions in a way that is difficult to express in words, while images and symbols can encapsulate these sensations in impactful visual moments.

The film 'Sundruð – Hold It Together' participated in the last edition of the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, where it won the André Martin Award, one of the important awards for outstanding works in animation. The film tells the story of 'Nima', a woman trying to adapt to a new society, but finds herself caught between a sense of belonging and the desire to escape, turning her psychological journey into a series of surreal transformations that reflect her internal struggle with identity, isolation, and the search for a place she can call home.

Film director Fan Sissoko (Production company)

Sissoko explained that she is naturally drawn to magical realism because it gives her the opportunity to explore the inner world of characters more truthfully, noting that she likes to turn invisible emotions into physical elements within the image, so that fear, loneliness, or anxiety become part of the world the viewer sees, not just a feeling narrated through dialogue.

Alienation

She pointed out that the feeling of alienation experienced by the film's protagonist, which appears on the surface to be related to migration, is in fact a human emotion that anyone can go through, stressing that what pleased her most after the first screenings was discovering that the audience engaged with this idea, as several viewers told her that they saw themselves in the character of 'Nima' even though they had not experienced migration.

She added that the character 'Svana' initially seems completely different from the protagonist; she is outgoing, confident, and behaves as if she owns the place, but the plot reveals that she too suffers from a deep sense of loneliness, noting that the film tries to demonstrate in its ending that isolation can turn into a shared space that brings people together instead of separating them.

She pointed out that the physical transformations the protagonist undergoes throughout the events were not just visual solutions or fantasy effects, but came as a direct extension of her psychological state, explaining that she believes emotions leave a real impact on the body, and that language often fails to contain emotional complexities, so she resorts to visual metaphor as the language closest to expressing those states.

She touched on the impact of her personal experience on the film, affirming that the work carries a part of her life as a woman belonging to more than one culture, but she does not consider it an autobiography, noting that her stay in Iceland during the scriptwriting period had the greatest influence on the film's features; she drew inspiration from daily life there, starting from social customs in geothermal pools, to the way people communicate, and the weather and nature of human relationships in Icelandic society.

Production collaboration

She affirmed that the production collaboration between Iceland, France, and Belgium gave the film exceptional richness, explaining that each country added a different element to the project: the development and musical composition took place in Iceland, the animation was done in France, and post-production was completed in Belgium, which allowed her to benefit from multiple expertise. Moreover, working with artists who had not lived in Iceland pushed her to rethink many details that seemed obvious to her, and helped her highlight the aspects most important to the viewer.

The director presented her second experience in animation (Production company)

Sissoko affirmed that the film relies on symbolic transformations that are difficult to present with the same freedom in live-action cinema, while animation allows the director to transcend the laws of reality and physics, turning fantasy into a natural part of the narrative. She noted that geothermal pools hold a special place in Icelandic culture, so she chose them as the main stage for the events, as a microcosm of society with all its relationships and unwritten rules.

She added that water itself carries deep human significance for her; it symbolizes transformation, time, and constant change, and has a dual nature: it can be frightening and violent in one moment, then turn into a source of tranquility and healing in another, which gives it great visual expressive power in cinema.

Broken sentences

She pointed out that the absence of a common language between the film's characters was not just a dramatic detail, but a fundamental element in its construction, so she deliberately used broken sentences, misunderstandings, and silent moments, because they accurately reflect the feeling of a person who finds themselves in a society where they do not master the language or understand its rules.

She affirmed that what affected her most after the world premiere at the Annecy Festival was not the applause or critical acclaim, but the meetings she had with viewers after the screenings; she was surprised that many spoke to her about their own feelings of alienation, which she considered proof that the film transcended the specificity of place to reach a shared human experience.

The film was recently shown at the Annecy Festival in France (Production company)

Regarding the film winning the André Martin Award, she said that this honor came as a surprise to her, especially since she does not have an academic background in animation, and 'Sundruð' is only her second film in this field. She noted that she completed the work during times when she was balancing family responsibilities and her daily job, so this recognition is a great motivation for her to continue. She also hopes that the film will gain wider presence in Iceland, especially amid the rising debates about migration.

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