Ice Merchants
20237.7movie
People
Every day, a father and his son jump with a parachute from their vertiginous cold house, attached to a cliff, to go to the village on the ground, far away where they sell the ice they produce daily.
Every day, a father and his son jump with a parachute from their vertiginous cold house, attached to a cliff, to go to the village on the ground, far away where they sell the ice they produce daily.
Thief12’s review published on Letterboxd: Watched as part of my March 2023 Challenge. Freebie.At 14 minutes, this silent short film certainly has to let the images and the music carry the burden of those themes, but it does so pretty well. Set in a steep cliff where a house is perched, Ice Merchants follows a father-and-son duo as they continuously go through their routine of picking ice, jumping down, selling ice, going back up. It's all shown beautifully through the minimalist animation of Gonzalez.
João Gonzalez’s startling Oscar nominated animation Ice Merchants, which recently picked up the Best Short Subject award at the Annies, is a gorgeous, heart-rending portrayal of loss and sacrifice based in a barren, Baltic environment. Gonzalez realises his short with a distinct colour palette that separates the warmth of reds and oranges with the cold of beige and blues. It’s a deceptively simple choice but it gives the film an eye-catching visual aesthetic that, as we learn as the story plays out, intersects with its core themes of love and grief.
