In a dangerous black-and-white city where human beings consume cartoons, a dog reconciles with its two cartoon friends after (almost) attacking them. A unique, colourful flashback from a blessed past provides the viewer with the necessary backstory: abducted by humans, the dog was the unfortunate victim of humans’ experiments, transforming him into a cruel cartoon hunter. With the help of his two friends, he successfully manages to fight back the experiments’ outcomes, and the three join the hidden population of cartoon characters, planning the resistance in some sort of urban warfare to protect other cartoons.
Even adopting a wordless, silent narrative, the short film effectively communicates its powerful message of friendship, companionship, and finding joy in resilience and solidarity.
Directed by Dimitris Armenakis, The Synthetic Age immediately captures the viewer’s eye with the unsettling deprivation of colour in the human world. Skyscrapers, cars, streets, human beings, and even the sky, are portrayed in black and white. Chased and forced to hide to escape the cruelty of human beings – that literally consume them, serving them in restaurants and selling them enveloped in plastic in grey supermarkets – cartoon characters represent the only splashes of colour.
This visual contrast serves as a powerful metaphor and infuses the storytelling: while humans are depicted as soulless beings devoted to overconsumption, cartoons – deemed as “happy food” in supermarkets’ labels – represent the only glimpse of life in their empty existence and the only custodians of positive sentiments within the film’s narrative. When, in the last sequence, cartoons set a truck on fire to free other hostages, the fire, with its liberating force, becomes the bearer of a political message. Significantly, it is the only element – apart from the characters themselves – that breaks the black-and-white palette with a vibrant orange and red outburst.
Produced by Alexis Anastasiadis (Frenel), the short film was included in the Official Selection at the Annecy International Film Festival 2025.
