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Not everything overlooked is invisible. Some realities are difficult to acknowledge precisely because they are already familiar, deeply embedded in everyday life, and seemingly self-evident. Yet visibility does not always lead to recognition, and recognition does not always lead to understanding. Between what is seen and what is acknowledged lies a distance shaped by power, memory, habit, and collective belief.
Bringing together animated works from different countries and cultural contexts, this programme explores that distance through allegory, dark humour, absurdity, and poetic storytelling. From invisible boundaries drawn between strangers to crowds waiting for an event that never arrives; from collective memories shaped by systems of power to the difficult choice of leaving one’s homeland; from a girl who can see only the past and the future but never the present, to a child quietly observing the contradictions of the adult world—these films reveal a shared condition: we often believe we see everything while overlooking what has been there all along.
The works in this programme are not concerned with invisibility alone, but with the complex relationship between presence and recognition. They ask what happens when something is visible yet unnamed, familiar yet unacknowledged, present yet excluded from the stories we tell about the world. Not because it is hidden, but because recognising it may require us to question accepted narratives, inherited assumptions, or comfortable ways of looking away. The films in this programme share a peculiar sense of absurdity. Again and again, they present worlds in which the obvious remains strangely unspoken, where contradictions are accepted as normal, and where entire systems depend on people pretending not to notice. Perhaps the question is not whether something can be seen. More often than not, it already is. The more curious question is how something can remain so obvious for so long, and still be treated as if it were not there.
Curated by Chi-Sui Wang, Executive Curator at Kuandu International Animation Festival (KDIAF)
Runnung time 84 min.
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Taiwan | 17:00 | 2018
Under the shadow of enormous goldfish, people have learned to forget, to obey, and to stop dreaming. When a young boy discovers the reason he is unable to grow up, he begins to question the seemingly tranquil world around him.
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South Korea | 10:23 | 2025
When a passenger reclines their seat on a crowded bus, the person behind begins to question the invisible boundaries that shape everyday life. What starts as a minor inconvenience gradually unfolds into a witty reflection on personal space, social norms, and the fragile balance between individual freedom and collective coexistence.
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Canada | 08:00 | 2016
Born with a left eye that sees only the past and a right eye that sees only the future, Vaysha is unable to experience the present. Trapped between memory and prophecy, she navigates a world forever divided by what has been and what is yet to come.
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Taiwan | 19:00 | 2020
A quiet ten-year-old girl navigates a day filled with classroom rituals, patriotic symbols, and the contradictions of adult society. As the gap between official narratives and lived reality widens, her silent observations gradually transform into questions no one seems willing to answer.
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France, Denmark | 12:00 | 2017
On the outskirts of a city, a crowd gathers in anticipation of an event. As hours pass and expectations grow, people watch, wait, and search for meaning in the unfolding spectacle. Blurring the line between observer and participant, Nothing Happens is a hypnotic meditation on spectatorship, collective behavior, and the human desire to witness something extraordinary.
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France | 05:30 | 2017
A son recalls the ritual of packing suitcases with his frequently absent father. Through years of departures and returns, a quiet portrait emerges of how love, memory, and connection can endure in the spaces left behind.
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Germany | 07:00 | 1989
Five identical figures stand on a floating platform. To survive, each movement must be counterbalanced by the others. When a mysterious music box appears, cooperation gradually gives way to competition, and the fragile equilibrium begins to collapse. Through a simple yet powerful visual metaphor, Balance explores greed, power, interdependence, and the delicate conditions that hold societies together.
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France | 06:00 | 2005
Told with sharp visual humour and no dialogue, Versus is a witty allegory about rivalry, territorial obsession, and the human tendency to perpetuate conflicts long after their meaning has been forgotten.