Rob Munday

The idea of herd (or mob) mentality, where people are influenced by the majority, is one that dates back to the late 1800’s, but its origins in society probably go back much further than that (the Salem Witch Trials for example). Examining the idea of a group mind in an unusual context, Jorn Leeuwerink’s short Flower Found! begins as a family-friendly animation before descending into something much darker.

The story starts innocently enough, as we witness a little mouse excitedly discover a flower in the woods near its home. However, after the adorable rodent rushes home to fetch a watering can, upon returning it discovers the plant has now been dug-up. Devastated by the disappearance of the newly found flora, the mouse sits and weeps by the site of its removal until a friendly bird offers comfort. That friend’s amiable persona doesn’t last long though as its expression hardens and it demands they go hunt for the culprit.

“I wanted to make a film that feels like a children’s book, I like simple story telling and illustrations”, Leeuwerink explains as we discuss the origins of his film.

As they search the woods, asking the animals they meet if they have seen the flower, soon a mob forms and after receiving a dubious lead the manhunt (or animal hunt) concludes. It’s a modest story (the director admits he’s drawn to “simple storytelling “) with a relatable message and it should come as no surprise that Leeuwerink’s original motivation was to create a film “feels like a children’s book”, and so took inspiration from a German classic, which the director lovingly calls “the little mole who wanted to know who had taken a sh*t on his head”.

With that scatalogical tale a stripped down sort of detective story – in the same vein as more contemporary books like Jon Klassen’s I Want My Hat Back and Chris Haughton’s A Bit Lost – Leeuwerink decided he wanted to twist his own narrative into something a little darker and came up with the idea of an innocent creature being persecuted for the “theft” of the flower. Explaining that he felt this “added a little more depth to the story” and also offered the opportunity for both “dark comedy and drama”.

Living in an age where the internet means that people don’t even need to be in the same space to form a mob mentality and people can be accused of being racist or a “creep” with no real evidence, as I mentioned earlier, there are some relatable themes at the heart of Flower Found! At the short’s dark conclusion we’re left with no doubt that this initially innocent film is meant for an adult audience. The final scenes of the mouse returning home, burdened by guilt and literally carrying the result of the persecution on his tiny shoulders are a sobering sight. This may be fantasy, but with it just over two years since an angry mob attacked the Capitol Building in the US, we know herd mentality is a reality.

The animals mob led by the vengeance obsessed bird.

To get its message home, Leeuwerink really had to lean on the children’s book style for the aesthetic of his film and does so with a traditional animation style of simple character design and hand-drawn backgrounds. The effect is unnerving, as the style sets certain expectations that the narrative certainly doesn’t follow. Everything in the film’s production – from the colour platte to Bryan Teoh’s minimalistic score – is aimed at lulling you into a false sense of security before shattering that feeling and leaving you almost as devastated as the film’s cute rodent character. The real masterstroke in the realisation of Flower Found! though is how the director handles the conversations between the animals, the simple speech bubbles telling us everything we need to know.

Following a hugely impressive festival run, dating back as far as 2017, which saw the film screen at Annecy, Animafest Zagreb, OIAF and more, Leeuwerink’s short won awards at KLIK Amsterdam Animation Festival and Anima in Brussels. If you enjoyed Flower Found! be sure to check out the director’s latest film Pig, which again tackles grand themes in a light and accessible way, over on Shortverse.