A Savage Tale Finely Wrought: Ayce Kartal’s ‘Wicked Girl’ Makes Waves on the Festival Circuit | ANIMATIONWorld
AnimationWorld Magazine — October 19, 2017
A Savage Tale Finely Wrought: Ayce Kartal’s ‘Wicked Girl’ Makes Waves on the Festival Circuit
Out of the many strong short films presented at this year’s edition of the Ottawa International Animation Festival, one standout project was the 2D animated Wicked Girl (Kötü Kız), which was awarded Best Narrative Animated Short at the event.
Written, designed and directed by Turkish animator Ayce Kartal, who also storyboarded, illustrated and animated the incredibly moving, eight-minute short, Wicked Girl is a portrait of S., an eight-year-old girl with an overflowing imagination who is keen on nature and animals. While she is looking back on the good old days in her grandparent’s village, dark and terrifying memories emerge and, little by little, begin to make sense.
Kartal began his studies at the Fine Arts program at Anadolu University in Eskişehir, Turkey, graduating from the Animation Department in 2000. He remained at the University as a Research Assistant, earning an MFA in 2004, and went on to complete the Time-Based Arts Pre-PhD program at UNSW Sydney. He also won a scholarship to study Film Directing at the New York Film Academy, graduating in 2009.
“In Turkey, if you happen to be an artist, it means it’s a very sad thing for the families because this makes you really poor,” Kartel wryly comments.
His previous short, 2016’s Birdy Wouaf Wouaf, follows an adorable bird used to being pampered by his mother and father — until the day he starts barking. Before that, in 2013, Kartal released Backward Run (Tornistan), which criticized press censorship of the Gezi Park protests that occurred in Turkey between May and July that same year.
Wicked Girl was produced by French prodco Les Valseurs in co-production with Gao Shan Pictures, located on France’s Reunion Island, and is being distributed by uniFrance label Arte France. Currently making the festival rounds, Wicked Girl has also screened at TIFF, HAFF, KLIK, and more, winning prizes at Annecy, the Fantoche Festival and Croatia’s Supertoon Festival, among many others.
