Rocking a confident “indie” vibe and striking hand-drawn aesthetic, it’s pretty easy to see why Xaver Xylophon’s unorthodox road movie has been popular with festival curators worldwide. Screening at Clermont-Ferrand, SXSW and Annecy (where it won the ‘Junior Jury Award’) in 2015, ROADTRIP is a character-driven animated short that starts a little leisurely, but gradually draws you into its detailed universe of dry-humour and eccentric personalities.

Though a 22-minute animated road movie, featuring a leisurely build-up and a titular journey that never really happens, might not feel like the kind of film we’d feature everyday on Short of the Week, it’s exactly the type of content we created our Long Short saturday slot for. A film of wonderful craft, assured storytelling and relatable themes, ROADTRIP demands the patience and attention we don’t always credit an online audience with adopting, but it’s a short that is truly worthy of dedicating almost half an hour of your precious internet time for.

It would be easy to label ROADTRIP as slow-paced or meandering, but there’s something in the focus of the Xylophon’s storytelling that suggests this pacing is key to his filmmaking approach. The way in which the filmmaker targets the more mundane moments in his storytelling, I couldn’t help but by reminded of the work of respected American independent film director Jim Jarmusch and it even feels like the director has channeled the spirit of Bill Murray for one of his characters.

Essentially a film where not a lot happens, it’s really to Xylophon’s credit that he manages to keep you entranced throughout the duration of ROADTRIP. With his excellent character development meaning that not only are you hooked into his story, but when it ends you really feel as if you have invested in his characters and left a little dissapointed you don’t get to spend some more time in their universe.

Since completing ROADTRIP in 2014, Xaver has worked on a number of projects including an entry into the The New York Times’ Modern Love series, an informative animation for NPR and this atmospheric music video for Swiss musician KnoR.

Follow Xaver’s work on his Vimeo channel or check out his website below