Céline Roustan
As ten-year-old Ljubica and her parents prepare to leave Belgrade to emigrate to Canada, her parents are kept busy packing their entire life for the move, while she is left confused about why they are leaving in the first place. With the unexpected arrival of a giant teddy bear (a prize in a competition Ljubica entered) their plans, and their last few days in Serbia, are disturbed as they’re forced to reconsider what they should take with them. Flafi (Fluffy), from writer/director Lee Filipovski, paints a moving and humorous picture of the emotional toll leaving home to start a new life can take on a family unit.
“I won a gigantic stuffed chicken in a contest which I failed to tell my parents about”
Inspired by her own immigration story, Filipovski shares with us that this exact situation happened to her as they were getting ready to leave for Canada: “I won a gigantic stuffed chicken in a contest which I failed to tell my parents about”. Initially, it naturally turned into a family anecdote, but with some distance, the symbolism of that massive toy became more apparent. The days leading up to a big departure are not only frantic because of the endless to-do lists, but they also feel like an emotional limbo where rational decisions can be harder to take than emotional, albeit impractical ones. “It is the battle between the emotional and rational that every immigrant has to go through in the process of moving from their homeland”, Filipovski explains. Leaving that huge teddy behind is obviously the most logical thing to do, but emotionally it is a whole different situation, especially for a young girl in need of support on the eve of a life-changing experience.
In real life, Filipovski didn’t get to keep her giant chicken and so decided to take control over her past by writing the screenplay for Fluffy “as a sort of therapy for myself”. Fleshing out that initial concept into a sharp and witty character-driven story, the filmmaker ensures every single person in her narrative is incredibly well written and developed and plays an important role in the comedy/drama of the short. Hitting all the right emotional beats and landing all its comedic swings Filipovski succeeds at juggling both facets of her story, making Fluffy both authentic and entertaining in equal measure.
Tamara Krcunovic, Helena Jakovljevic & Srdjan Miletic in Lee Filipovski’s Fluffy
The camerawork is also an integral part of the storytelling, making it clear that the apartment, in which they live, is small, but never feels claustrophobic. Shooting the film handheld welcomes the viewer into the intimacy of the family home, while also helping to enhance the comedy by magnifying some absurdities – especially the size of Fluffy. The camerawork is also effective in capturing the franticness of the events leading up to their departure and helping to keep us engaged throughout the 25-minute runtime of the film. With that striking last shot, Filipovski leaves us hopeful for the future of this family that we’ve come to love and wraps the film on a touching note.
With its world premiere at the 2016 edition of TIFF, Fluffy went on to be selected at multiple festivals including Aspen, SIFF and Hamptons, before winning Best Live Action Short at the 2018 Canadian Screen Awards. Filipovski is currently developing her next project, a feature film titled The Myth of a Real Man, check out the crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo now.