Rob Munday

Inviting you to explore a ‘distant future’ populated by giant flying wales and other strange creatures, Jules Boulain-Adenis’ 6-minute EMCA grad film PANACÉE blends sci-fi and fantasy to create a truly magical on-screen universe. Guided through these strange lands by two explorers looking to discover new worlds, Boulain-Adenis’ (who operates under the name Naleb) film showcases an approach to storytelling and an animation style full of potential.

An animator we’ve had our eye on for sometime after they impressed us with a couple of 1-minute shorts that displayed an attention grabbing aesthetic and a talent for world-building, PANACÉE is Boulain-Adenis’ longest and most ambitious film so far. With previous films ECHOS, VESTIGES and SANCTUAIRE laying a lot of the foundations for this final school piece, the craft behind PANACÉE has a traditional feel, whereas the narrative strives for a much more futuristic tone (I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that Miyazaki was a big influence).

PANACÉE somewhat goes against our usual ‘narrative first’ editorial approach, in that despite its bright opening, the film doesn’t quite feels like it nails the storytelling element of filmmaking. There’s a lot of great build-up here, but no satisfying conclusion. However, Naleb’s films have really caught our eye over the past year or so on Vimeo and with that in mind we’ve very much featured this film to highlight what we believe is a bright talent that you should keep an eye on in the future.