Suzanne Blake (Stella Gonet) is a successful and awarded stop-motion animator that has always controlled her daughter Ella Blake (Aisling Franciosi), who is a frustrated wannabe animator. When arthritis limit Suzanne hands, Ella helps her to finish her last movie. Ella's boyfriend Tom (Tom York) emotionally supports her, and his sister Polly (Therica Wilson-Read) also intends to be a stop-motion animator. When Suzanne has a stroke, she is admitted in the hospital in coma, and Ella moves to a studio apartment to finish Suzanne's animation. She decides to make a movie of her own, but she has no inspiration since she has always been ordered how and what to do by her overbearing mother. Out of the blue, a little girl (Caoilinn Springall) comes to her apartment, says that her movie is boring and proposes a new weird storyline in three parts to Ella, disclosing each part along Ella's increasing insanity.
"Stopmotion" (2023) is a strange and melancholic metaphoric story of a dominated young woman that slowly becomes mad when her overbearing mother dies. She has always been ordered by her mother how and what to do in animation (and life), and now she is not able to create anything. Her child inside is a creepy little girl, and Ella follows her bizarre and gore orders, leading her to insanity and to a tragic end of those around her. My vote is six.
Title (Brazil): "Stopmotion"
