From Omeleto.
A puppeteer struggles.
FLUFF is used with permission from Jodie Irvine. Learn more at https://instagram.com/jodieirvine.
Eunice is a puppeteer on a children’s television show. Though she’s been a veteran on the show for a number of years, she’s often belittled by her co-workers or overwhelmed by their chaotic work environment.
When her puppet, Barno, begins to grow — first imperceptibly, then alarmingly — her colleagues refuse to acknowledge what’s happening. But as Eunice grows more exasperated at being ignored, a long-suffering dynamic bubbles up into something that can’t be overlooked anymore.
Directed by Max Cledaniel and written by Jodie Irvine, who also plays the lead role of Eunice, this surreal and darkly funny short dramedy is a playful yet incisive exploration of societal invisibility, resentment, and the seething rage that comes from being dismissed. Its look and feel initially harkens back to the lively, playful milieu of Jim Henson, with its boldly drawn, cutely evocative puppets. But like Henson’s most visionary work, it goes into unexpected directions.
The storytelling immerses us at first in the chaotic intimacy of the behind-the-scenes environs of a children’s TV show, with bright colors, crowded sets and clashing egos. The anamorphic widescreen frame crams every space in the images with puppets and props, allowing the film’s world to feel both expansive and suffocating. Eunice is constantly jostling and jockeying for space in this world, but it’s hard to be heard, much less influence, in such a workplace.
But when Barno starts growing, it makes Eunice’s job harder. But when she tries to draw attention to the problem, she’s written off. And as Barno looms larger, the space itself seems to close in, developing a visual metaphor for how suppressed emotion warps perception. The growing puppet cleverly literalizes emotional suffocation, becoming the physical embodiment of Eunice’s growing frustration that comes from never being taken seriously until one’s anger fills the room.
Tonally, the narrative blends surrealism and psychological drama. At first, Eunice’s dilemma is played for comedy, satirizing an insensitive workplace underlying a seemingly cheerful and innocent show. We may even wonder at first if the puppet’s size is all in her head. But Barno gets undeniably bigger and Eunice’s distress at being minimized and not believed becomes more acute. Her dilemma explores how it feels to never be heard or seen, much less listened to or believed by the world around you. As Eunice, Irvine offers a sharp, incisive performance, conveying how debilitating this situation is, fraying at the edges mentally and emotionally. She’s made to feel crazy, and she begins to flail until she reaches a boiling point, spinning the film into a dark direction.
Based in part on Irvine’s experiences as a woman and neurodivergent person, FLUFF is a sharp commentary on how we trivialize, minimize and overlook "inconvenient" voices, until the buried feelings take monstrous form. By the film’s unsettling finale, it turns its puppet into a symbol of what’s unrecognized, pushed aside, marginalized — something that grows until it can’t be ignored anymore, taking on a life of its own.
