Two polar bears are the protagonists of this multi-award winning 3D animated short film entitled ‘Migrants’. In it, their home has become uninhabitable due to climate change. The thawing of the surfaces where they lived has forced mother and cub to find a new habitat. Upon arrival at their new destination, however, the reception is not friendly. Indigenous brown bears forcibly prevent the newcomers from staying, driving them out of their territory. What happens next?
In the course of the film, it becomes difficult for the viewer not to empathize with the climate refugees, two adorable bears who are just looking for a safe place to live. The narrative is an allegory that refers to the climate and refugee crises already affecting human populations.
We made a story on the theme of migration, but with the theme of global warming in the background and with polar bears as the main protagonists. They are one of the species most affected by climate change.
Production team
The eight-minute film, produced by five students (Hugo Caby, Antoine Dupriez, Lucas Lermytte, Zoé Devise, and Aubin Kubiak) from the PÔLE 3D animation film school in Roubaix, France, has won awards and nominations more than 300 times at international animation film festivals.
‘Migrants’ doesn’t need a single line of dialogue to communicate clearly and concisely an issue that has been debated ad nauseam. The expressions and whimpers of fear of the adorable plush cub generate a dose of all that empathy that is missing in today’s conversations and debates.
We knew we wanted to make a short film about society and current issues.
Production team
“In 2018, there was a controversy about the Aquarius ship, which had rescued migrants in the Mediterranean Sea, but no country wanted to allow the ship to land in their ports,” the filmmakers said in an interview. “We were moved and inspired by this event as the subject of our film.”
‘Migrants’ has already won awards at several festivals and many are the voices in favor of it having a career that ends up at the Oscars. The film has been named the best short of VIEW Fest, the short film festival sponsored by the VIEW Conference in Turin, Italy.
The Telegraph has reported that between 2001 to 2010, there was a 40 per cent drop in Alaska’s polar bear population. This drop is being credited to polar bears’ migration to Russia from Alaska due to rising temperatures in their local habitat.
In the last 50 years, there has been a 4.8-degree Celsius rise in Alaska’s annual average temperature. This in turn has caused the loss of sea ice, which reduces the bears’ hunting areas. The migration has resulted in a booming increase in polar bear numbers in Russia’s Wrangel Island.
