Experiencing Interruptions?

What They Say About Carmen

"What They Say About Carmen" tells the poignant story of a young girl born without arms. Narrated in a memoir-like tone, the film consistently introduces others’ voices through the recurring phrase, “They say that...”

This refrain serves as a narrative counterpoint, highlighting the contrast between what is told and what is truly experienced. By exposing different layers of human behavior, the film challenges perceptions of normalcy and explores the indifference often shown toward those who are different.

  • Eve Ferretti
    Director
  • Eve Ferretti
    Writer
  • Pedro Mota Teixeira
    Producer
  • Roberto Santos
    Producer
  • Nuno Rocha
    Producer
  • Victor Santos
    Producer
  • Daniel Rabanea
    Animator
  • Victor Santos
    Director of Photography
  • Project Type:
    Animation
  • Runtime:
    2 minutes 24 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    February 17, 2025
  • Country of Origin:
    Portugal
  • Country of Filming:
    Portugal
  • Language:
    Portuguese
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
Director Biography - Eve Ferretti

Writer, screenwriter, and concept artist, Eve Ferretti currently lives and works in Lisbon as the art director at SpiceShip Studios. As an author, she has focused on writing, illustration, and directing animation projects, primarily using the stop-motion technique.
Regarding her work, essayist Dirce Waltrick Amarante states:
"Eve Ferretti's work deconstructs logic, scrambles meaning, and captivates the reader with a great deal of humor (whether macabre or not), much like nonsense literature in all its forms of expression. In her narratives, Eve creates a dynamic interplay between text and illustration, reminiscent of the approach used by the English painter, draftsman, and writer Edward Lear, one of the pioneers of Victorian nonsense literature, alongside his contemporary Lewis Carroll. In Lear's fiction, often accompanied by his own illustrations, text and image frequently contradict one another, but the illustrations can also convey more than the text itself—something we also observe in Eve's work."

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

"What They Say About Carmen" brings to light the story of a 13-year-old girl who was born without arms, narrated by a voice that uses a “borrowed” discourse, typical of those who “say that...”. This narrative, coming from someone who never knew Carmen, adopts a memorial tone that contrasts with the animated image, which reveals the true essence of the protagonist. This confrontation between the visual narrative and the verbal discourse invites us to dive deeper into Carmen's life.

The animated image allows the viewer to perceive the distance between the narrator's words and the reality experienced by Carmen, transforming them into a accomplice of her experiences. By reproducing the indirect speech of others, the narrator gains a spontaneity that makes the account either informative and neutral or filled with emotion, reflecting the dramatic cadence of the visual. The film addresses delicate themes, often silenced in our society, revealing how Carmen faces discrimination, neglect, mistreatment, and abandonment by her own parents, those who should protect her. The memories of her traumatic childhood haunt her throughout her life and shape her trajectory.
The author weaves her own experiences into the narrative: “I had a childhood marked by my father's alcoholism and violence. I lived with fear and anguish. He has been sober for over 10 years, but I am still haunted by the ghosts of my childhood. My suffering was greater than my siblings' because I was always more sensitive, the artist, the different one. Fortunately, I found my group and had my mother Ivone by my side; she was my Catrina.”

"What They Say About Carmen," an unpublished nonsense work by the author, won the João de Barro prize for illustrated albums in 2016 in the national original literature contest in Brazil and will be adapted into stop-motion animation. Its mysterious atmosphere translates into taciturn and disjointed settings, with a graphical expression rich in details and a “distorted” aesthetic. The yellowish tones evoke the past, while the degradation of time reinforces an aesthetic that resonates with the melancholic nostalgia of the narrative.

Characters and settings—all designed by the author, who also takes on the art direction, ensuring a harmonious transition from drawing to the volumetric elements of stop-motion. These meticulous details promise to captivate the viewer, providing a visually rich experience that is also profound in terms of social and human values and behaviors. Thus, the stop-motion technique proves to be the most suitable for conveying the atmosphere and complexity of Carmen, revealing her struggles and triumphs in a world that often renders her invisible.