Still: Zwermen - Janneke Swinkels & Tim Frijsinger

It has been an epic 10-year journey for filmmakers Janneke Swinkels and Tim Frijsinger to complete their stop-motion animated short Zwermen (Murmuration).

The film is set in a nursing home. Elderly resident Piet is startled when he notices a feather in his hair. What’s more, his voice begins to sound very shrill at choir practice. Is he turning into a bird?

The film, world-premiering in Official Competition in Annecy, and sold internationally by French outfit Miyu Distribution, has been a painstaking affair. Co-director Swinkels freely admits that she and Frijsinger “weren’t really aware” what they were biting off when they began work on the project a decade ago. Since then, they’ve changed producers, fought tooth and nail for funding, and pulled together a complex co-production partnership. They have also come through the pandemic and had a child together. 

Between times, Swinkels and Frijsinger have been working on “commissions and illustrations,” to pay the bills.

“We always wanted to make a stop-motion film but it wasn’t easy to get everything together,” Swinkels says with obvious understatement. “But we were very stubborn. We said we wanted to tell this story and that it has to be this way.”

The film is a fable about ageing and letting go. Swinkels was partly inspired by her experiences visiting her grandfather in a nursing home (the subject of her 2013 graduation short Changing Speeds (Zonder versnelling) at the KASK School of Arts in Belgium).

“The few people who’ve seen it [Zwermen] already, most of them were thinking about their parents or their grandparents or what they had heard of Alzheimer’s and people letting go of their memories and the things they can do.”

“It’s also a bit about elderly people that have to find their way in the group when they move to a care home, to be themselves as well as relate to the group, as the birds do in the murmuration,” Swinkels adds. “Piet is resigned to getting older, and while the film’s atmosphere is gentle and playful, there is nevertheless an air of melancholy.”

Swinkels further acknowledges that real-life care homes aren’t always as idyllic as the one shown in the film. Visiting her own grandparents, she saw the overworked staff struggling to cope. “But that was not the story we wanted to tell…we wanted to make a nice movie, not one about how poorly people are treated in elderly homes.” 

Swinkels and Frijsinger were keen for their puppets, which were created from a fine stocking-style wool, to have “a soft look” The duo may have been new to stop motion but they eventually assembled “a very experienced team.” They were working in Mascha Halberstad’s Holy Motion animation studios. (Halberstad is the director behind Dutch animated smash hit, Oink). 

They even used the same Director of Photography as on Oink - the versatile Peter Mansfelt. “This man can do anything. He is the MacGyver of stop-motion!” Swinkels enthuses about Mansfelt who advised them on everything from planning to lighting, and even built some special props for them.

The mood on set was “very different” from that on a live action movie - markedly less frantic. There were stresses along the way. Deadlines were tight. Puppets would break. The filmmakers “really underestimated how much work it is to build the set-up…the lighting, the rigging, everything has to be stuck on.” But there was camaraderie and good humour too.

In depicting the birds, the filmmakers drew on observations of swarms of starlings who used to fly over their apartment. They were fascinated by how they moved in perfect formation and turned together as if they were one organism. They tried to depict this in stop-motion, but in the end decided to do it in 2D animation. There are also two bird puppets, designed by Zaou Vaughan.

After all the time and effort devoted to bringing Zwermen to life, the filmmakers are delighted that their short is being feted in Annecy alongside work from giants of the animation world. 

“We are super happy we managed to get selected. When I see the names that are also in selection, Oscar winners that have been coming to Annecy for 20 years and have won all the prizes. I feel a little bit humble that our film is there as well.”

Now, the duo are looking ahead - and hoping to make a stop-motion puppet feature, but one that won’t take quite so long to complete.

“We know our way a bit better now and we know the people we want to work with…” Swinkels signs off.

Zwermen is a co-production between Dutch production outfits Spotted Bird and Murmur Animation and Belgian Beast Animation.

Find out more about the Dutch shorts at Annecy here.