‘Death Does Not Exist’ review: Animation follows young activists into battle

Dir/scr: Felix Dufour-Laperrier. Canada/France. 2025. 72mins

The strain between social duty and private preservation takes centre stage on this Canadian French animation, whose expressive hand-drawn visuals assist deliver depth and impression to a somewhat-slight narrative. Specializing in a gaggle of French-Canadian activists who mount an ill-fated violent assault on a rich goal, Dying Does Not Exist makes use of its dreamlike tone to make sharp real-world factors in regards to the potential energy – and simple limitations – of particular person motion.

There’s a hallucinogenic high quality to the painstakingly hand-drawn animation

Author/director Felix Dufour-Laperrier received the Annecy Contrechamps Jury Award in 2021 together with his third characteristic Archipel, and follow-up Dying Does Not Exist may even go on to play in competitors on the animation competition after making its debut in Cannes Administrators’ Fortnight. (The movie was showcased in Annecy’s work-in-progress part in 2024.) Additional competition play is probably going, and UFO Distribution will launch in France and Maison 4:3 in Canada. Additional afield, the movie could also be distinctive sufficient to pique the curiosity of socially aware distributors all for animation with extra mature themes.

On the centre of the story is Hélène (voiced by Zeneb Blanchet), a member of a small group of offended younger activists planning to ambush a rich native household – so-called ‘figures of the institution’. Their idealistic hope is that the shockwaves from the occasion will deliver a couple of fairer, extra balanced new world order. “All it takes is a little bit of braveness,” asserts group chief Manon (Karelle Tremblay). “It’ll all collapse.” This sentiment is rendered actually by Dufour-Laperrier as a marauding tidal wave-cum-earthquake, which devours the opulent dwelling and its environment and lays down new floor on which, it’s assumed, the subsequent technology can construct anew.

But when the second of motion comes – a stylised orgy of violence which has moments of visceral magnificence amid the carnage – Hélène is paralysed by concern, and her associates, together with potential lover Marc (Mattis Savard-Verhoeven) are killed. Hélène flees into the woods, presumably wounded herself, the place she is haunted by Manon, who tells her that she now has a second probability. Throughout this darkish night time of the soul, Hélène should select whether or not to face up for her associates, and her beliefs, or run and save herself.

Regardless of a concise operating time, Dufour-Laperrier’s screenplay can really feel stretched – Hélène and Manon spend plenty of time wandering the woods, encountering a younger woman who could or might not be a youthful model of Hélène, operating from their pursuers and fascinating in discussions about loyalty, duty and concern. There’s plenty of repetition within the dialogue, maybe deliberately given the quasi-dreamstate through which the motion takes place – is Hélène dreaming or dying, or each? – however it typically appears like some extent being hammered dwelling.

Visually, nonetheless, Dafour-Laperrier’s strategy is extra nuanced and intriguing. There’s a hallucinogenic high quality to the painstakingly hand-drawn two-dimensional animation, whose easy look belies a wealth of element. He makes use of a muted palette with pops of color, and, whereas Hélène takes on the stable hues of her environment, Manon and Marc seem as ethereal outlines, blurring the boundary between character and backdrop.

Elsewhere, the textural pure fantastic thing about the forest, with its considerable wildlife, contrasts with the manicured artifice of the goal household’s dwelling, highlighting simply what Hélène, Manon – and, by extension, their technology – are combating for. Equally, music is restrained and sound design from Olivier Calvert and Samuel Gagnon-Thibaudeau knits collectively an evocative pure soundscape into which shouts, gunshots and, sometimes, digital tones sometimes intrude.