Marcel Barelli is dedicating his first animated feature film, Mary Anning [+lee también:
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entrevista: Marcel Barelli
ficha de la película], to a real-life character who turned the science world upside down. On the occasion of the film’s presentation in the Annecy Animated Film Festival, Barelli chatted to us about his relationship with animation, the things the protagonist can teach us about the world and the importance of being ourselves in spite of adversity.

Cineuropa: Have you always wanted to work in the world of animation?
Marcel Barelli: Let’s just say I’ve always drawn. That said, until I was 16, I didn’t know I could make a living out of it and I wanted to be a palaeontologist. My other passion was film but, likewise, I didn’t realise I could make a career of it. In the end, after an apprenticeship in chemistry, I enrolled in a film school in Geneva. I soon realised that the set, the actors and the cameras weren’t necessarily things that I liked, but animation felt like an obvious choice. I wanted to tell stories, but in my own way.

What image of Mary Anning were you looking to convey?
I decided that it should be a film for children, for families. As a result, I decided to focus on Mary Anning’s childhood. Even though she did actually exist, there’s not a great deal of research about her as a historical character, so we were able to fictionalise certain aspects. I’m not at all interested in creating fiction stories; there’s always an element of truth in my films. In this first fiction film, I wanted my depiction of Mary Anning’s life to be mostly true to life. I wanted the audience to understand that she could be considered as the creator of palaeontology, the woman who made a discovery which turned the science world upside down. I had two motivations: to make a film that I would have liked to have seen when I was 10, and to make a film that I would have wanted my children to see when they were 10. I wanted to make a film about a character who swam against the tide and who was a little anachronistic, historically speaking. Mary Anning is a woman, she’s poor and she roots around in the mud, even though it’s frowned upon. Her consistency is a strength, it’s exemplary. She conveys a positive force which I wanted to transpose, she stands firm and carries on doing what she loves, something that’s right and important.

The film’s music creates an additional layer of tenderness and freedom. What role does music play in your creative process?
I like it when music plays a part in films. It’s anachronistic in the film, it fits with the character of the protagonist, who’s a bit bubbly and swims a little against the tide of her time; a bit of a punk, basically! The composer (Shyle Zelewski) is also an author of alternative comic books. She’s hyperactive and does lots of different things, and she gave us the rights to the songs. We also asked her to compose a song specially for the film credits.

Animals play a very important part in your films. Where does that passion and love come from?
What I like, when it comes to my short films, is that animals mostly speak to us about ourselves and our relationship with them. Sometimes they mirror our society directly and our relationships with others. For Mary Anning, it was a little bit special. I wanted to preserve a realistic side of the story, and for the beautiful relationship Tray forges with the protagonist to be foregrounded. Initially, Tray is Mary’s only friend, aside for her father. She subsequently learns how to make friends and, primarily, that she’s not alone, that there are other people like her, who support and understand her. Animals always tell us about ourselves and, in my film, the real star is the fossil discovered by Mary at a key point in the story. It was from that point onwards that we started to see the history of humankind differently.