The animation in this film results in a touching metaphor about trauma, both physical and emotional, and reconciliation. Eric is an animation artist who literally has no mouth, so he communicates through a frame around his neck. Too introverted to confess his feelings to his co-worker, he lives in isolation, despite his mother’s attempts to bring him closer to the outside world. Until the day she asks him to visit his uncle Rogelio.
Directed by Filipino Carl Joseph Papa, The Missing is a feature film with animation done using rotoscoping. If rotoscoping allows us to preserve expressiveness, Papa quickly makes room for the surreal. The mouth of Eric, the main character, is erased. In a pause (or in a dream?), the film migrates to science fiction. The filmmaker establishes an interesting dialogue between ultra-realistic appearance and fantastic tension.
The animation in The Missing is free, inventive and particularly expressive: parts of the face erased, visible grids, pencil scratches… each element seems to be chosen in direct connection with the expression of emotions and the inner world. Genre is also a means of expression, with fantasy here talking about queer traumas, as in Gregg Araki’s Mysterious Skin. (Michaël Gaspar)
