Ensam is a stop-motion animation about a young girl and her cat, set in a house surrounded by forest in Halland, Sweden. The girl hides Ensam in her bed at night, dresses him in doll’s clothes and grows up alongside him, while gradually becoming aware of the power and responsibility contained in their relationship. The film is built from miniature sets made of cardboard, plastic bags, candy wrappers and collected natural materials, together with handmade puppets and fragments of live-action video.
It moves through thresholds and passages between interior and exterior spaces, darkness and almost blinding light, and the shifting seasons in Sweden.
The film has grown out of a first-person text about solitude, intimacy, power, guilt and the bond between a child and an animal. Ensam is both the cat’s name and the Swedish word for “alone”.
A development study for Ensam was carried out with support from Region Halland, Sweden.
