HELPING HAND (I LOST MY BODY)

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An animated French language tale about a severed hand trying to locate its owner seems an unlikely contender to take on 'Toy Story 4' at the Oscars.

But that is what is happening at the 2020 Academy Awards, with Jeremy Clapin's mesmerising Parisian story 'I Lost My Body' managing to make the Best Animated Feature shortlist when 'Frozen 2' didn't.

Winner of the Nespresso Grand Prize last year during the Cannes Film Festival's International Critics Week, Clapin's story has gone on to scoop an Annie Award, as well as being honoured by the San Diego critics.

It was also acquired by Netflix which potentially has given it a much wider audience if they are prepared to hunt it down despite the algorithm.


Based on Guillaume Laurent's story 'The Happy Hand', the writer has teamed up with Clapin for the screenplay which begins with a hand scuttling out of a fridge in a hospital lab.

As it takes its first steps on a journey aimed at reuniting itself with the rest of its body, the hand has to hide behind a medical skeleton as a doctor wanders in past eyeballs that have spilled out of the fridge.

Soon it has to begin a perilous trek that will see it plunge several floors down to the streets of Paris, into the Metro where it has a nightmarish encounter with some rats and at one point is even picked up by a guide dog.

However there is more to 'I Lost My Body' than the adventures of a severed hand.


Through flashback, Clapin and Laurent reveal the hand belongs to a pizza delivery boy, Naoufel - voiced by Hakim Faris in the French original and by Dev Patel in the English language version

Naoufel survived a car crash as a child but lost his parents in the accident.

We learn as a child he harboured dreams of being an astronaut and a pianist.

He also ran about with a tape recorder, capturing audio of various moments in his childhood.


Orphaned, he moves to Paris to live with his gruff, slobbish uncle and his rough cousin, Belladine Abdelmalik's Raouf - played, as an adult, by Jonny Mars in the English version.

Naoufel delivers pizzas on his motorbike but has to hand over his earnings to his uncle who uses it for drinking money.

Occasionally he falls foul of his boss for failing to deliver his pizzas in time which means giving them away for free.

One night, he is late delivering a pizza to an apartment block where he gets into a conversation over the intercom with Victoire Du Bois' Gabrielle - voiced in English by Alia Shawkat.


Enchanted by their encounter, Naoufel sets about trying to track her down in a quest that will see him come across a carpenter Gigi, played in French by Patrick Assumcao and in English by George Wendt.

Gigi offers him a job and a roof apartment and this inspires Naoufel to make a big romantic gesture to Gabrielle

But will he win her heart?

And will the hand negotiate the perils of travelling through Paris and locate its owner?

Clapin and Laurent create a beguiling tale for adults - be warned parents, there is a sex scene -  with the help of some smart animation that borrows from the Japanese anime tradition.


Like all good films, animated or otherwise, its success or otherwise hangs on foundation of its script.

Fortunately not only is the screenplay strong but it is worthy of its lofty ambition - allowing Clapin, his cast and animators to dive into some profound topics.

'I Lost My Body' tackles love but is at its most impressive when it focusses on loss - both emotional and physical.

It does that not in a pretentious way but with a lot of heart.


The film boasrs an impressive score by Dan Levy and there is also some nifty editing by Benjamin Massoubre.

Up against 'Toy Story 4', 'Missing Link', 'How to Train Your Dragon: Hidden World' and Netflix stablemate 'Klaus', it is hard to see 'I Lost My Body' breaking through the mainstream and capturing the Oscar.

However by making the Academy Awards shortlist, this quirky tale has already scored a victory.

It has also made a compelling case for more attention to be given to international, indie animated cinema.

('I Lost My Body' was premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 17, 2019 and was made available for streaming on Netflix on November 15, 2019)



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