The Trenches

Claude Cloutier’s latest film is an animated short about a young World War I soldier. On the edge of the battlefield, recruits are dreading the order to attack. At the signal, the recruit leaps into a hell of fire and blood where the earth engulfs both the living and the dead. Blending archival images and Cloutier’s hypnotizing brushstroke, the film is a dazzling illustration of the futility of war.