Modern Babel

Language: Mandarin, with English subtitles

摩登超市

UK premiere

Synopsis A half-human, half-pig housewife manically shops in a dystopian supermarket until she loses her grip on reality. As the shopping trip goes on, she devolves into a terrifying metaphor for the obsessive consumer: a greedy animal.

Curator’s Note This creative, satirical animation uses pigs as its antiheroes, holding a hyperbolic mirror up to the dangers of our own consumerist tendencies. Lin Zhao’s concept may be inventive, and sometimes even hysterical, but it sheds a profound light on the dark, commodity-driven impulses of contemporary society.

Director’s Statement From a thematic perspective, I wanted to show how the characters are manipulated by consumerism. In order to convey this in the visual design, I was keen to create an audiovisual language that broke the traditional rules of animation.

Festivals & Awards

2019 Feinaki Beijing Animation Week Nominee

2019 Cannes Film Festival Short Film Corner Nominee

2019 Venice Biennale Finalist