The oldest surviving work of great literature, the Epic of Gilgamesh, was engraved on ancient Babylonian tablets 4,000 years ago. If that sounds like a long time ago, how about this? A story written 36,000 years ago on the walls of a giant system of caves, is what forms the basis of Hugo Frassetto and Sophie Tavert Macian’s Oscar shortlisted animation film, ‘Traces’.

During that time, when an animal was painted, it was hunted. When it is time to go painting and hunting, Karou the painter and his apprentice Lani set off to paint the walls of the great cavern, but they are surprised by a cave lion.

That it is one of the oldest known stories is not the only thing that is fascinating about this story. It reveals a very interesting interplay between art and science, and underlines the importance of art to life, something that we would do well to remind ourselves as a civilisation. In that sense, the film is an attempt to connect to the origins of our humanity.

Using the painstaking and unforgiving technique of paint on glass animation, ‘Traces’ tells the story vividly, and with good pace.

We caught up with Sophie, who spoke for Hugo and herself, in an exclusive interview.

“In French, ‘traces’ is a polysemic word. The trace is the drawing, what the act of drawing leaves behind. It is also what hunters follow when they track an animal. And, in a broader way, this word evokes the past, what we leave behind and what reaches us from ancient times. This word contains the whole film, so to speak. It was perfect. Short. With a dry consonance, as straight as an assegai or a line. Strangely, it took us a long time to choose it because there is something austere about the word, much more with French than English pronunciation, but in the end the title is obvious from every point of view,” she asserts. We agree!

The film is inspired by the Chauvet Cave frescoes. “The film was born from a 36,000-year-old image, the fresco of lions in the Chauvet cave. It is a hunting scene where a pack of lions chase a herd of buffalo. It is a powerful and mysterious image, fascinating, which made us want to tell the story of the artist who painted it,” says Sophie.

In addition to the frescos, there is other human evidence in the caves like the charred remains of ancient hearths, carbon smoke stains from torches, foot prints of a young child and a wolf or dog walking side by side (suggesting the origin of the domestic dog), and so on. There is also fossilised remains, prints, and markings from a variety of animals, some of which are now extinct. These caves were discovered in 1994, and have been sealed off to the public ever since. So, did the makers of Traces ever get to see the fresco in the cave themselves, we wondered.

Sophie says, “Unfortunately, we were not able to visit the real cave, which is open to a very small circle of people over a very short period of the year in order to preserve the paintings, which are very sensitive to changes in the atmosphere. But thanks to its classification as a 

UNESCO World Heritage Site, the cave could be reproduced identically. So we visited the reproduction, which is in fact an immersive museum, which stages the cave and its works ‘as if we were there’. We had to totally project what it would do to us, how magical it could be, to create the sequence where Lani sinks into the depths of the cave. However, we had access to all the surrounding environment: the gorges of the Ardèche, the caves that dot its banks and especially the Pont d’Arc, this immense bridge of natural rocks that crosses the river, in front of which was the cliff where the original entrance to the cave opened.”

The project took three years to write and finance, and one-and-a-half years to ‘fabricate’, as Sophie puts it.

Another highlight of the film is the sound design. The sound effects are not just unique, they are almost therapeutic, and beautifully complement the visuals to keep the viewer glued to the screen. Says Sophie of the sound design, “With Fabrice Faltraue, our amazing sound designer and music composer, we started from two ideas: nature and ‘stone age’. We were looking for a sound universe that evokes distant times, that appeals to our collective unconscious. We also wanted the soundtrack to have a narrative role, accompanying the supernatural dimension of the film in connection with sand. The sound of ‘Traces’ is a mix between natural noises, stone noises, voices and electronic sounds.”

Sophie says getting shortlisted is a ‘big good surprise’. “Overall, we are very proud to represent traditional animation, artisanal and demanding cinema. Alongside the nine other films, we participate of an abundant and inventive world animation, where all techniques and all universes cohabit, where each creation has its story, its importance and its ‘magic power’,” she avers.

Hugo is currently working on a new film and Sophie is in post-production of her first feature film, ‘Nightshades’. Their adventures in animation are not over yet!