Dandelions are flowers that encapsulate all the hope there is in Mother Nature. You see them bloom as beautiful yellow flowers, and once the petals wither away, the seed heads transform into that white fluffy ball, that we like to blow off whilst making a wish. And as those parachute-like pappus fly away, the dandelion begins to renew its cycle, showing the circle of life in full action. This is exactly what filmmaker Momoko Seto has portrayed in her visionary Dandelion’s Odyssey.
The Paris-based Japanese filmmaker had previously shown her artistry with her short film series Planet, that includes Planet Z and Planet Sigma. Her latest work — which marks her feature debut — gained praise at the Toronto Film Festival and won the FIPRESCI Award at Cannes Critics’ Week, as well as the Paul Grimault Award at the Annecy Film Festival.
Dandelion’s Odyssey follows the adventures of four dandelion achenes that have been named Dendelion, Baraban, Léonto and Taraxa. They used to belong to the same dandelion and they survive a nuclear explosion that destroyed the Earth. Their wanderings lead them across a variety of landscapes, from the cosmos to all the possible naturalistic settings that an alternative planet has to offer. Similarly to what was done with the film Flow, there is no dialogue: nature speaks a universal language with its beauty and display of resilience.
Dandelion’s Odyssey took nine years in the making, using an intricate blend of time-lapse and ultra–slow motion macro footage shot across Japan, France, and Iceland. Seto’s team further used StackShot imaging, and robotic motion rigs with 17 cameras running simultaneously to capture miniature plant sets in studios. The aerial floatings of the florets evoke the georgic choreographies of Fantasia, glorified by the music and sound design of Nicolas Becker and Quentin Sijacq.
The hybrid of live-action and animated storytelling has given birth to an immersive cinematic experience. The result is utterly mesmerising, as the journey begins with the dandelion pappus resembling the planets it accosts, whilst traveling through unimaginable corners of our galaxy, where spellbinding ectoplasms float across the universe. The quartet of achenes explore a post-apocalyptic planet, through glaciers, water flows, marine abysses, desertic lands, floating potatoes, fungi fields, verdant forests, rocky territories, rain-filled clouds. The surviving Earthlings that Dendelion, Baraban, Léonto and Taraxa meet are bugs, bees, frogs, aquatic creatures, butterflies and caterpillars. The most poetic of moments is when the achenes ride upon the back of slugs, to explore the novel dimension.
This new world has elements that are somehow familiar to the world we once knew, but also possesses an otherworldly flair. The four protagonists — through their distinct personalities that emerge in the face of challenges — mirror the human experience confronting natural disasters, migration and resurrection. Dendelion, Baraban, Léonto and Taraxa root down in alien soil, where all floral life begins, just like an astronaut sets foots on a new planet hoping for a fresh start.
Dandelion’s Odyssey ultimately turns out to be transcendent fable that imaginatively creates an allegory of humanity’s quest for values, in a degraded world where common sense and sympathy seem to be lost.
Final Grade: A
Photos credits: MIYU Production