'The Red Turtle' is a 2016 French Japanese animated film I viewed at the Manchester Arts Festival (MAF 2017). It's a bizarre interpretive fantasy film showing the story of a man stranded on an island. He tries to escape but is stopped over and over again by a mysterious red sea turtle.
The film starts of with him trying to survive and gradually going insane from not being able to leave the island because of the Red Turtle. In a fit of rage he attacks the Red Turtle when it emerges onto land and leaves it on its back. At this point the film starts to introduce it's bizarre fantasy side when the red turtle turns into a woman with whom he makes a family with.
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The man and his family made with the turtle woman
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Through it's bizarre concept it tells a story of a cycle of life in many ways besides the family itself. It does this subtly through moments such as the tsunami scene. It destroys a huge portion of the trees on the island which we see later on being replaced with new plant shoots.
With the family it shows a cycle of life similar to that of a sea turtle only with the man involved. When the child becomes old enough he leaves the island in search for a new life, similar to that of baby sea turtles once they are hatched and ready they leave the land to go out to sea. After this we follow the parents as they grow old and after the man dies of old age the woman turns back into a turtle and leaves for the sea as well. This is reminiscent of how a real female sea turtle would return to the sea after it's finished it's role in the cycle of life.
The animation was also well done, simplistic yet detailed, beautiful and an art style that looks like something out of the pages of a book.
Examples of the animation:
The Red Turtle Trailer:
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