“This is the dramatic and over-the-top story of a love triangle in which a married man, consumed by depression, falls in love with a sex worker just as his wife becomes pregnant. Made up of hand-drawn images and animated through stop motion and digital puppetry in the most handmade and precarious way, this ‘not-that-short film’ reveals an incredible amount of detail, created and crafted entirely through experimentation and failure. It is an interesting take on the play written by Karlos Efrén, adapted and reimagined in the hands of Mique.”

This whole journey began in 2006, when my dear friend, the writer and poet Karlos Efrén, staged a scene from his play ‘Monólogo de un Hombre Solitario’ for an examination as part of his postgraduate degree in dramatic direction at the University of Chile. The scene was set midway through the story, and I found it fascinating — the text, the actors’ performances, the way it felt as if it could belong both in a Venezuelan telenovela and in the real world. But more than anything, I was left with a deep curiosity about how it all began — and, of course, how it ended.

Right after the examination — for which I had been invited to collaborate on the set and lighting design — I got hold of the script and started imagining how it could become a “maybe not too short” short film. I knew I wanted to animate it, so I began sketching a storyboard and experimenting with stop motion. It wasn’t until 2009, however, while living in England and feeling homesick and nostalgic for my friends, that I finally decided to make it happen.

I truly thought it would be easy. The storyboard I created was very simple. I rearranged some scenes to make better sense of the story from my point of view and gathered a couple of volunteers — Ana, Stephano, and Kaileigh — to record some of the character voices, with the ambitious plan of producing both an English and a Spanish version (unfortunately, the English version never saw the light). I also collaborated with artist Ross Nicholson, who helped refine the backgrounds and character designs, which were hand-painted and later transformed into digital puppets. I found Chilean volunteers to voice the remaining characters — Rodrigo, Poly, and Montserrat — and spent the following year in Chile editing the audio.

When I returned to England in 2011, Ross’s availability had become limited, and producing drawings under my strict directorial requirements turned into a long and tedious process. And once the drawings were finally complete, I realized that having them on paper was one thing — scanning, colouring, and animating them (using frame-by-frame stop motion mixed with puppetry) was another entirely. What had begun as a fun project slowly turned into a full-time, monotonous job. My only motivation was the desire to finish it once and for all.

Completing the animation for each scene — with backgrounds hand-painted in watercolour, along with sound effects and ambience — felt endless. Rendering would take an eternity, only for me to notice a tiny mistake that drove me mad, forcing me to rearrange everything and render it all over again. This happened several times, for hours on end, slowly wearing me down. I was so exhausted that I had to take serious breaks from the project — sometimes for weeks, other times for months, occasionally for several months at a time. And that’s how the years passed, until May 2015, when I finally completed post-production and was ready to share it with the world.

Once the film was finished, Elizabeth — my friend and partner in crime in Santiago — began organizing a grand premiere. “After all those years of work, you can’t just upload it to YouTube and call it a day, right?” she said. Sponsored by her small business, ‘Kellun’, she made it happen on the evening of September 12th, with an outdoor screening on a rooftop terrace in Santiago Centro, complete with a lovely buffet and live music.

I have to say, I’m very proud of this film. It’s not perfect, and maybe it’s not the best film ever made, but I believe it is interesting and thoughtfully crafted — a production shaped by dedication and persistence, and one that is worth watching. So please sit back and enjoy this tragic story. And if you like it, don’t forget to share it with the world: give it a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel and social media, and above all, share it with your friends.