Logline

An intriguing journey through a landscape that humanity has either not yet reached—or has already abandoned.

Teaser

Synopsis

Before the viewer stretches a flattened, artificial landscape divided into residential plots. A flood begins, transforming the land into an ocean. A fish leaps from the water. The movement of the ocean waves gives rise to an enormous mountain range. Water flows down from the mountains and is harnessed to generate hydropower before reaching a lagoon where a city has been built.

Social unrest breaks out in the city. The rebellion escalates, and the railway station at the heart of the city becomes the target of a bombing. The explosion transforms the surrounding landscape into a surreal, primordial world of meadows, where traces of both before and after the Anthropocene can be seen.

Within these meadows stands an abandoned farmstead, surrounded by wasteland designated for the expansion of a nearby city. This new suburban area is a flat landscape marked only by a grid of posts indicating future residential plots. The wind makes the metal marker posts resonate like an orchestra of wind instruments.

An artificial canal crossing the suburban wasteland begins to overflow.

A fish leaps.

Why This Film / Director’s Vision

The New Suburb grew out of my experience of landscapes transformed by human intervention, from the wetlands and industrialised areas around Venice to the rapidly changing outskirts of Tallinn. In the film, there are no human characters – water and landscape become the protagonists, moving through traces of human activity and imagining a world before or after us. Hand-painted gouache gives this changing landscape a timeless, almost fresco-like quality.

Francesco Rosso, Director

Francesco Rosso is an Italian-born animation director and visual artist based in Estonia. He holds an MA in Animation from the Estonian Academy of Arts and has worked across animation, experimental film and visual arts. His films include Black Seed (2014), Fok Nabo Distorio (2014), Destined to Be Dead (2018), Four Stones (2021) and Gate (2022). His work combines traditional and experimental animation techniques, with a particular interest in drawing, painting and the relationship between landscape and moving image.

His films have been presented at numerous international festivals, including PÖFF Shorts, Animateka, Fantoche, Clermont-Ferrand, Hiroshima International Animation Festival and Encounters. The New Suburb was selected for the CEE Animation Forum in 2023.

Production Status

Currently in production

The project was selected for the CEE Animation Forum 2023, where it was presented to the international animation industry.

EXPECTED COMPLETION DATE – 2028

Director & Key Creative Team

Director: Francesco Rosso
Screenplay: Francesco Rosso, Anti Naulainen
Producer: Edina Csüllög
Co-producer: Olivier Chabalier

[DIRECTOR BIO TO BE ADDED]

Technical Information

Type: Animated short film
Duration: 11 min
Animation technique: Gouache on paper / 3D computer graphics
Countries of production: Estonia / France

Production & Co-production

Production: Undi Teod OÜ, Estonia
Co-production: GASP!, France

Producer: Edina Csüllög / Undi Teod OÜ
Co-producer: Olivier Chabalier / GASP!

Financing & Partnership

Current production stage: In production
Financing secured: €18,000
Financing sought: €100,000

The project is currently seeking €100,000 in additional financing to complete production. We are open to discussions with financing partners, broadcasters, funds and other partners interested in supporting the completion and international circulation of the film.

Countries and partners already involved: Estonia – Undi Teod OÜ / France – GASP!

Detailed budget and financing plan are available upon request.

Pitch Deck

Interested in learning more about The New Suburb?

[PITCH DECK – REQUEST ACCESS]