French-Malian director Fan Sissoko confirmed that her short animated film "Sundruð – Hold It Together" originated from her desire to express emotions that words cannot describe, noting that resorting to magical realism was a means that gives her the ability to embody internal conflicts and transform them into tangible visual images, bringing the film closer to the audience through a human language that transcends borders and cultures.

Fan Sissoko added, in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat via Zoom, 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 the image and symbol can condense these feelings into impactful visual moments.

The film "Sundruð – Hold It Together" participated in the latest edition of the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, where it won the André Martin Award, one of the important awards dedicated to outstanding works in the field of 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 the style of magical realism because it gives her an opportunity to explore the inner world of characters more honestly, noting that she likes to turn invisible feelings into material 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.

Lack of belonging

She pointed out that the feeling of lack of belonging experienced by the film's protagonist, which appears linked to migration on the surface, is in fact a human feeling that anyone can experience, emphasizing that what pleased her most after the film's first screenings was the discovery that the audience interacted with this idea, as a number of viewers told her that they found themselves in the character of "Nima" even though they had not experienced migration.

She added that the character "Savana" initially seems completely different from the protagonist; she is outgoing, confident, and acts as if she owns the place, but the development of events reveals that she too suffers from a deep sense of loneliness, noting that the film tries to prove in its end that isolation can turn into a shared space that brings people together rather than separating them.

She pointed out that the physical transformations the protagonist undergoes throughout the events were not merely visual solutions or imaginary effects, but rather 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 influence of her personal experience on the film, emphasizing that the work carries a part of her life as a woman belonging to more than one culture, but she does not consider it autobiographical, noting that her stay in Iceland during the scriptwriting period had the greatest impact on the work's features; she drew inspiration from details of daily life there, from social customs in geothermal pools, to the way people communicate, to the weather and the nature of human relationships in Icelandic society.

Production collaboration

She confirmed 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 music composition stages took place in Iceland, while the animation was executed in France, and post-production was completed in Belgium, which allowed her to benefit from multiple expertise. Also, 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 the field of animation (Production company)

Sissoko confirmed that the film relies on symbolic transformations that are difficult to present with the same degree of freedom in live-action cinema, while animation allows the director to transcend the laws of reality and physics, turning imagination 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.

The director added that water itself carries deep human connotations for her; it symbolizes transformation, time, and constant change, and also has a dual nature: it can be frightening and violent at one moment, then turn into a source of tranquility and healing at another, which gives it great power for visual expression 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 structure, so she deliberately used broken sentences, misunderstandings, and silent moments because they accurately reflect a person's feeling when they find themselves in a society where they do not master its language or understand its rules.

She confirmed 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 personal feelings of alienation, which she considered proof that the film transcended the specificity of place to reach a shared human experience.

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

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

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