Selected at many festivals, Ninjababy is a Norwegian film between humor and drama, with animated sequences that give an original rendering, around the theme of motherhood and pregnancy. Discovery at the cinema this Wednesday.
What is it about?
Astronaut, forest ranger, designer… Raquel, 23, has all the plans in the world except becoming a mother. When she finds out she’s 6 months pregnant after a one-night stand, it’s disaster! Decided: Adoption is the only solution. Then Ninjababy, an animated character from her notebook, appears and makes her life hell…
Aliens from Norway to see in the cinema
Selected for numerous festivals, Ninjababy is Norwegian director Igvild Sve Flicke’s first feature film released in France.
A sequel to Rebecca Zlotowski’s Children of Others, also released on Wednesday, Ninjababy also deals with motherhood, but through a very different prism. The strength of this little nugget from Norway is its inventiveness and the way it conveys humor and lightness, despite the complexity of its subject matter and sometimes its harshness. Ninjababy has a unique use of animation that blends with fiction. Recently, we have seen two more films with female heroines using this process and the original mix, in this case in the films La Page blanche and Everyone loves Jeanne, which is still showing.
Like Blank Page, Ninjababy is adapted from Norwegian animator, cartoonist and illustrator Inga Setre’s graphic novel aptly called Fallteknikk.
The differences between the graphic novel and the film are pointed out, the filmmaker intentionally explains that “The focus is on the relationship between (heroine) Raquel and her best friend. I started from there and in agreement with Inga (Sætre, designer) I looked at the age, ambitions and social status of the characters. I would never have made this film without Inga. (…) He did all the animations, he was involved from the beginning of the development and I am really grateful to him for that“, emphasizes the film director.
A mix of fiction and animation
Thanks to this mix, the film is fairly clean (even if it does drift towards the dramatic), with likable characters whose concerns we care about.
Filmmaker Ingvild Sve Flicke wanted to show that it’s okay to make mistakes. One of the themes is the fear of motherhood, here specifically for young Norwegian women: “We are at a time when it is unusual to conceive before the age of 30. The film is also about taking responsibility, maturity and our ability to overcome all situations. I believe that the fear of motherhood is felt by many women, even those who planned it.” – she continues. “And in return there is a feeling of care and love that develops during pregnancy, in different ways. This ambivalence, these conflicting feelings, that’s what I tried to bring out in the film.“
Ingvild Sve Flicke’s Ninjababy with Christine Kujat Thorpe, Arthur Berning, Nader Khademi can be found in theaters this Wednesday.
Source: allocine
Emily Jhon is a product and service reviewer at Gossipify, known for her honest evaluations and thorough analysis. With a background in marketing and consumer research, she offers valuable insights to readers. She has been writing for Gossipify for several years and has a degree in Marketing and Consumer Research from the University of Oxford.
