7 Missing
(2024)

7 Missing 🧰

7 MISSING is a stop-motion claymated short film by Yuval Katz, which was his BA Graduation film in the Visual Communication Department at Bezalel Academy of Art & Design. It was then chosen to play in the Graduation/Competition section at this year’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

The story follows Agent M, an agent who’s dealing with the post-traumatic stress of losing a colleague on a mission. He is forced to work through that stress when he gets put on a new mission to retrieve six missing agents from a mysterious shaman, who must be terminated.

I have a personal preference when it comes to animation that veers far away from claymation and normally doesn’t give a lot of attention to stop-motion, but at this year’s Annecy Festival, I was swayed. It took me a few watches to fully appreciate the incredibly detailed and meticulously colour-coded use of claymation that infused a sort of dream-like quality throughout this whole film.

This agent is struggling to properly process this loss in his life and ends up carrying that emotional baggage, all while continuing to immerse himself in the same environment that triggers those nightmare-ish memories. He ends up finding peace through an interaction he has with a shaman, who is able to spark a sort of cognitive vibration that allows him to free his mind from the plaguing thought of death that runs on a loop.

Every once in a while I’ll come across a story of someone going to a random forest in the middle of nowhere to meet a shaman and find peace, or nirvana, through Ayahuasca, and this felt like a version of what those stories normally entail. Those stories are about isolating journeys, journeys that are hard to understand unless you’ve experienced it yourself, which is what I’d say after watching this.

Director Yuval Katz's 7 Missing breathes psychedelic life into the claymation genre, providing a comforting peace to a man who continues to deal with his subconscious mind's yearning to mourn, as his conscious mind tries to power through the day. 

Enjoy!

8/10 🍿 🎥

Runtime: 7mins
Where: 2024 Annecy International Animation Film Festival

7 Missing Review (2024) The Richmond Reviewer

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