12/12/2022 - Milena Pantović chatted with the Croatian animator Sunčana Brkuljk about her film which screened in the European Young Talents section at Animateka Ljubljana

Sunčana Brkulj, director of Stinky in the Dark Forest

Stinky in the Dark Forest is the third film by Croatian animator Sunčana Brkulj, which was screened in Ljubljana within Animateka’s European Young Talents section. Brkulj completed her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, and her previous film I’m Not Feeling Very Well was screened in Annecy, Animafest, Animest and more than 40 other festivals. While discussing the process of making Stinky in the Dark Forest, the director offered up some insight into the film’s touching story about growing up, its eerie aesthetic, and her experience as a young animation filmmaker.

Cineuropa: What was Stinky’s genesis as a character?
Sunčana Brkulj: There are a lot of elements from my own life in Stinky. It all started with the visual idea of the wizard, which seemed pretty convenient for that kind of narrative. Then I decided to go with that idea and try out something new, because I think it’s important to take up that kind of challenge. The story itself came out of a journaling process; identifying what bothers me and what I’m wondering about made me think that those things must be important to me and that I could make a film about them. After that, I just tried to sum it all up and narrow down thoughts and feelings. But I didn’t want to talk about specific events, I wanted to make a universal story that lots of people could relate to, whether it’s a breakup or situations and issues linked to friendships, family, growing up… My life experiences were my main inspiration, but I wanted it to be something that everybody could identify with, and then add their own personal details to.

There are similarities between Stinky and the character you depicted in your previous film I’m Not Feeling Very Well. Could you say a bit more about this?
I don’t know how that happened. It’s probably the fact that I tend to lean towards that kind of shape and design. The skeletons from I’m Not Feeling Very Well were too developed and too scary. With Stinky in the Dark Forest, I needed a character with a simple geometrical shape. I used a plainer version on account of the cut-out technique, because the more complex the character design is, the harder it is to animate.

This film also uses digital collage, as opposed to the stop-motion in your previous work. What did this new technique offer?
I’d rather do everything manually. I chose this digital technique this time round, because it makes the whole process much faster. The key thing was the practicality of the technique, because I had a lot of things planned to happen in the film. Also, the making of the background, little objects, plants, animals, and that whole composition process, took a long time, so I really did need an efficient technique.

What challenges did you face while making the film?
The fact that the film revolves around the very classic narrative of a hero’s journey, and that it’s quite standard in terms of the introduction of the story through to its denouement, made it quite demanding. Both my previous movies had a far simpler structure, they were finished in one shot and they mostly relied on a musical base. Stinky in the Dark Forest was made from scratch, involving an actual film process, which I’d never engaged with until then, and the sound design came much later. It was also challenging because I think of myself as a person who doesn’t have a natural talent for storytelling, who’s more interested in drawing and designing characters.

There are also elements reminiscent of video games in the film, in terms of its sound and structure. It seems like Stinky goes from one conquered situation or ‘level’ to the next, with the accompanying computer sounds.
The presence of video game elements, with Stinky going from one level to another, is supposed to represent the metaphor of Stinky growing up. To be specific, he is advancing while being rewarded for doing good things. But given that Stinky is still growing up, he becomes confused and can’t really tell right from wrong. He constantly makes mistakes and even the prize begins to mean nothing to him. The film’s sound design was also developed accordingly, to complement the video game aesthetic.

What is your next project?
I managed to get funding for an artist residency in Viborg, Denmark, where I got to work on something new, experience a great work environment [and a] fun and relaxed atmosphere, and meet inspiring and motivated people. Hopefully I’ll manage to finish the project I’m working on by the end of the year. There might be a possibility of this Hieronymus Bosch-inspired project being exhibited in a gallery, since it was filmed in one take. It’s going to be something different, made with a new technique using clay, but also drawing on some of the things I’ve learned in previous projects.