QUICK’N DIRTY: LIVE FROM BERLIN

The premise of Papaya is imbued with a childlike-charm. Even the most banal objects scattered around nature are bursting with life. No spirit is deemed too insignificant, all is anthropomorphised. The structure follows a feeling of naïve wonder. A hungry bird plucks our papaya seed protagonist from his slumber and thrusts him into a constantly shifting landscape. The animation purposefully introduces as many colour palettes as possible as well as varied backgrounds.

Priscilla Kellen’s debut feature is produced by Brazilian animator Alê Abreu, who directed Boy and The World (2013) and Perlimps (2022). It’s easy to see the influence of Abreu’s animation and direction style on Kellen. There’s a fast-paced attention to world-building reminiscent of the latter movie. This swift editing simulates the staggering awe of our protagonist. The boldest creative decision, however, is not with the visuals but with the audio. The film is without dialogue. It relies heavily on visual storytelling in order to invest audiences into its story.

Latvian Oscar-winner Flow (Gints Zilbalodis, 2024) also comes to mind. Both films navigate the idyllic world through the eyes of a lost being (a cat in the case of the European film). Through this simple directive, they’re both able to circumvent traditional dialogue by focusing on the protagonist’s simultaneous curiosity and fears. Kellen uses the wordlessness in order to give the dynamic environment space to breathe.

This 74-minute animation is anchored by Tallita del Collado’s spellbinding music score, which helps to support the narrative arc. The artists recycles and reimagines samba tunes throughout. On the other hand, there are issues with the sound design. The SFX is clunky. Some sounds are flat and repetitive, and quickly grow redundant. The narrative runs into dead ends in the third and final act. The film’s lack of dialogue makes it hard to introduce new characters. The animation too has its limitations: the paper-collage inspired technique lacks expressiveness. The visuals never quite match the grandeur of the music score. The story is at its strongest when the music punctuates the rhythm of our papaya seed’s heroic journey.

Despite the multiple flaws, Papaya remains is a dense, charming and creative movie. The message of simple and innocent admiration of nature will captivate children and grown-ups alike.

Papaya just premiered in the Generation Kplus section of the 76th Berlinale.