Accidental Luxuriance of the Translucent Watery Rebus

Accidental Luxuriance of the Translucent Watery Rebus is a 2020 animated film by Croatian director Dalibor Barić, shortlisted for the 2021 Satellite Awards in the Motion Picture, Animated or Mixed Media category and submitted to the 2021 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Plot

Conceptual artist Sarah alongside friend Martin trying to fight the system joining a revolutionary commune while Inspector Ambroz and the police are on their trail.

Production and release

The techniques used in the film include rotoscoping, collage, and found footage. Barić took care of many parts of the films's creation himself, including direction, scripting, animation, composition, soundtrack, and editing. The film had a budget of €20,000.
The film was initially shown in ten Croatian arthouse cinemas and screened at the Zagreb Museum of Contemporary Art in 2020. In order to qualify for the Academy Awards, it was also shown at Laemmle in early 2021. The film's general release was Video on Demand on Vimeo.

Reception

In the Los Angeles Times, Carlos Agulilar described the film as "A surrealist noir film resembling the retro futurism of Alphaville," and in Variety, reviewer Michael Nordine described the film as "vibrant and alive in a way that few films falling under the wide umbrella of animation even attempt to be." Peter Bradshaw, in a four-star review for The Guardian, referred to it as a "distinctly disturbing and even absorbing" reverie, stating that there is "something impressive in the film’s indifference to narrative meaning or ordinary legibility." On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a score of based on reviews.