A Kind of Testament

Festival success doesn’t automatically translate to a selection for Short of the Week. Many short films can enjoy an impressive run on the festival circuit but still not align with our platform’s specific criteria – pacing, relevance, and subject matter all play a role in our decision-making. That said, there are times when critical acclaim and online appeal naturally go hand-in-hand.

Stephen Vuillemin’s A Kind of Testament is a prime example. With its bold visual style and a narrative tailor-made for the internet – where a woman discovers her identity has been co-opted in surreal animations drawn from her social media photos – the film is well positioned to carry its festival momentum into the digital realm. It’s a film I’ve wanted for our platform ever since I first saw it back in 2023.

Described by Vuillemin as a story about “someone who ‘sacrifices’ their time to make animation”, despite the surreal nature and the specifics of the narrative, A Kind of Testament is surprisingly relatable. At its core, it’s a story of paranoia and identity theft – fictional, yes, but grounded by a palpable sense of authenticity, largely thanks to the compelling voiceover narration. It’s this touch of reality that not only increases the immersive nature of the film, it amplifies the film’s unease, making it all the more disturbing.

One of the many unsettling scenes in A Kind of Testament.

For me, it’s this unnerving layer that makes A Kind of Testament so unforgettable. While many films go for shock or horror in overt ways, Vuillemin opts for a quieter, more insidious kind of tension. Whether it’s the haunting scene of a motionless woman being torn apart by dogs – set against a voiceover revealing how the woman who made these strange animations had terminal cancer – or the unsettling intensity of that bathroom sequence, these moments don’t just shock; they embed themselves in your memory, refusing to fade long after that initial screening.

With Vuillemin spending much of the film’s production working on his own, the visual complexity of his short is really a kind of testament (ahem) to his craft. The striking imagery plays a crucial role in the film’s opening moments; before the narrative fully takes hold, it’s the bold, richly detailed animation that grabs your attention. And that grip never loosens over the course of the 16-minute runtime. At times, the film unfolds like a series of surreal vignettes, but Vuillemin weaves them together with such precision that it feels like this story could only be told in this exact way. The style and the narrative are inextricably linked, each enhancing the other to create a whole that’s greater than the sum of its parts.

Testament marks Vuillemin’s first short in 15 years – his last being his involvement in the Gobelins film California Love. Here’s hoping we don’t have to wait another decade and a half for the next one.doesn’t take as long.