Sulaimani — trailer. Watch on YouTube.
A restaurant can hold far more than the people sitting at its tables. In Sulaimani, Vinnie Ann Bose turns a meal into a meeting between present experience and the memories it awakens. Stop-motion puppets inhabit a Parisian restaurant, while hand-painted animation opens the door to the lives its customers left behind.
The short follows Alia and Neena, two women from Kerala whose paths cross in France. They do not share the same history or the same reasons for leaving India. Yet familiar food, language, and music bring each of them into contact with a home that remains emotionally close. The festival synopsis frames their evening as a journey through both displacement and emancipation. [1]
Two techniques, two kinds of experience
Bose explains that the solidity of stop motion suited the present, while painted 2D images could express memory’s emotional distortions. The characters needed to remain recognizable across both approaches, and their performances were designed around subtle, natural behavior. [2]
The distinction is more than a change of visual style. Physical tables, dishes, and bodies establish a shared place; the painted passages allow each woman a private relationship with it. The restaurant becomes a space where belonging can be felt without requiring either character to have resolved everything about her past.
Making a miniature meal convincing
The cuisine required its own inventive fabrication. Bose describes hair gel and tiny pearls standing in for boiling water, shaped plastic wrap for pouring tea, papier-mâché porottas, and glycerin to give curry its inviting shine. The materials are ordinary, but their arrangement, lighting, and movement have to suggest something a viewer can almost taste. [2]
Bose also details a similarly hands-on process for the memories: character animation developed in TVPaint was printed, painted with ink, photographed, and combined with painted backgrounds. She describes eight months of fabrication and stop-motion shooting at Ciclic Animation in Vendôme, followed by an eight-month 2D production process at Les Astronautes in Valence. [3]
The production credits name Agathe Lederer and Matthieu Carré for the dimensional sets, Esther Finet and Bose for puppets and props, and Pauline Valls for puppet costumes. Produced by Girelle Production with Les Astronautes, the film was written by Bose and Patricia Valeix. [4]
The production timelapse and Annecy making-of film below offer complementary views of that work. One exposes the repeated adjustments behind a performance; the other supplies a broader account of the artistic decisions. Together, they make clear how much of Sulaimani‘s emotional specificity begins with the things its artists chose to build.
Behind the scenes
Sulaimani — stop-motion animation timelapse. Watch on YouTube.
Sulaimani — Annecy making-of film. Watch on YouTube.
Images from the production
Sulaimani imagery © Vinnie Ann Bose / Girelle Production / Les Astronautes. Additional frames captured from the Annecy making-of film and production timelapse.
References
- Premiers Plans — Premiers Plans festival description.
- Cartoon Brew — Production interview and accompanying imagery.
- Cartoon Contender — Vinnie Ann Bose on the making of Sulaimani.
- Girelle Production — Producer's team credits.
