Short Stream | An ode to the anxious teenage soul

Four chapters punctuate the film’s 12-minute, 16-second runtime: "Ice cream sandwich is my favourite meal," "Lizards suck and I will tell you why," "My sister is useless," and "Lizards are bold but so are fish." The protagonist, an anxious, socially awkward unnamed teenager, is about to tell a room full of children about a girl who lived in a loo. She stutters anxiously while the children mock her, and we see her levitate in a bubble. In a montage-like structure, other characters—the Girl’s sister, aunts, family guests, a cacophonous party crowd, and a prying lizard—pop in and out, all serving one purpose: to reveal the Girl’s inner reserves as well as her frazzled nerves.

Dash, born and raised in Kolkata and a recent graduate of the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI), Kolkata, says her film is autobiographical. “I was a very anxious child. I had a lot of social anxiety growing up. You could say the film is based on those experiences. I wanted to focus more on the feeling. Now, there’s probably a word for it—say, neurodivergence,” Dash says. The hand-drawn frames took her more than a year to complete. Dash wrote and produced the film under the mentorship of SRFTI professors. “The best part about SRFTI is that there are no rigid rules. We watched two films a day, and for me, the focus was on the process. 2D animation is all about that—it’s a very time-consuming art form,” she says.

Watch the film here

Awash in muted browns, greys, and dusty pinks, Dash employs self-deprecating, deadpan humour to shape her protagonist.

In 2024, The Girl Who Lived in the Loo premiered at the Berlinale International Film Festival and was also selected for the Dharamshala Film Festival. “At Berlinale, I got a lot of feedback from the young audience. One person told me she felt very seen when she watched the film.”

2D animation requires a conscious investment of attention; you have to immerse yourself in it. In the best examples—Miyazaki’s Spirited Away or Howl’s Moving Castle—you find yourself floating, buoyed up by gentleness, visual exuberance, and emotional literacy. Dash’s filmmaking has tremendous promise—her emotional literacy shines beyond the craft. Another standout talent in the film is sound designer Dibakar Saha, whose aural scheme effectively employs silences, hums, and ambient sounds that highlight the tender, reflective voice of the Girl.

Dash’s earlier short film, TMI, a claymation narrative about girls' body image, shares the same deadpan humour and existentialist questioning—"What is the big deal about breasts?"—and was an official selection at the Toronto International Film Festival. “At present, I am working on a documentary feature in which women talk about various aspects of their lives—I see it as an extension of TMI,” Dash says.

Short Stream is a monthly curated section presenting Indian short films that haven’t been widely seen but are making the right buzz in the film industry and festival circles. We stream the selected film for a month on HT Premium, the subscription-only section of hindustantimes.com.

Sanjukta Sharma is a Mumbai-based writer and film critic. Write to her at sanjukta.sharma@gmail.com

Details:

The Girl Who Lived In The Loo

Directed & animated by: Subarna Dash

Producer: Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute (SRFTI)

Budget: Around ₹60,000

Languages: Bengali & English