La Mort N’existe Pas is a sublimely hand-drawn animated film from Félix Dufour-Laperrière. There is great power in its message on political action and inaction. While imperfect, this will hit the right notes for many.

Young activists attempt an armed attack that fails, leading one of the activists, Hélène, to abandon her comrades. Manon, a former member of the group, and her younger self haunt her, prompting her to consider whether she should repeat her actions and bring about significant change in their city, or allow things to remain the status quo.

The hand-drawn animation within La Mort N’existe Pas is a sight to behold. It’s minimalist, but the sight of the brushstrokes on the screen leaves you in wonder. Visually, it’s beautiful and bold, with little artistic decisions that just make it stand out. The idea to cover the humans in the colour of their background not only looks unique, but it also shows how humans are not as unique or important as we want to be. This focus of one colour palette at a time, should make the animation become flat, yet it strangely feels more alive than it would with normal colouring.

There are numerous excellent decisions made throughout the film, with Dufour-Laperrière giving us a near dreamlike world at all times, until the violence begins. Be it the savage gun battle at the beginning of the movie, or when we transition from Hélène running away to a sheep being chased and eventually murdered by a pack of wolves (an obvious metaphor), or even watch Manon skin a rabbit. These moments are graphic and somehow feel both detached and necessary to the story, as they are integral to its sense of coherence. We need that graphic violence, even if we don’t want to see it.

With La Mort N’existe Pas’s narrative, however, there is an interesting conundrum the viewer faces: in a film where the animation is so dreamlike, will a narrative, though vague in its desire to give us concrete answers, work when asking us uncomfortable questions about what we should or would do in such a situation? Do you go for the ultra-violence, or do you take other action?

We get to see and experience the inner struggle of our protagonist without knowing anything about them. All we get are characters’ names and some of their motives. With the targets of the group, all we can see is that they have heavily armed security and live in a mansion. Nothing else is shared; perhaps that is the point, to have us make our own quick decision on who we are to side with. In this respect, it doesn’t entirely work due to its rather needless overcomplication of the matter.

Without those narrative anchors in place, we are left with a sense of restlessness in all of its vagueness. Like its animation, La Mort N’existe Pas’s narrative choices are quite bold, but the film doesn’t quite pull it off as much as you would want it to. There are so many positives that you may let it slide, though this is a film that may require a second watch to appreciate fully.

The ideas put forward by Dufour-Laperrière are quite arresting. The dreamlike world that the animation opened us to allows for the narrative to take large leaps. We see Hélène use her powers to defend herself and to heal others. It doesn’t fully With its challenging narrative style, it feels like a movie you will either fall head over heels in love with or be downright frustrated with. For me, it works, although it’s not perfect. As a film about the political frustrations of young people who feel they are stuck between a rock and a hard place, it becomes something special.

★★★ 1/2

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