UK Premiere
Betrayer 叛徒
MINT Animation Short Strand: My Spectrum, My Shadow, and My Self
Year of Production 2025
Production Countries/Regions China
Duration 11 mins
Genres Horror Animation
Dialogue Language(s) Mandarin
Subtitle Language(s) Chinese and English Subtitles
Director(s) Shengxue Shi
Director’s Bio
Born in Hangzhou, China. In 2025, received master’s degree from the Department of Animation at Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School of Film and New Media. Lately, animation and I haven’t been getting along.
Synopsis
Grandmother had turned into a spider. 'Betrayer,' She said to me.
Festivals & Awards
2025 14th Insomnia International Animation Film Festival - The Debutoriya Prize
2025 19th FIRST International Film Festival “FIRST FRAME" - Short Film of The Year
Scriptwriter(s)
Shengxue Shi
Producer(s)
Yamamura Kojia
Executive Producer(s)
Key Casts
Curators’ note
Grandmother is ill. What does that leave us?
From spiders weaving threads of suffering to tears gathered from the treetops, stark imagery bursts forth with uncompromising emotional force. A visually arresting pencil-drawn film that eschews easy reconciliation, it depicts a family relationship slowly consumed by illness and unresolved trauma. Rooted in the generational cycles of East Asian family structures, the film moves through the fissures between pain and filial duty, and ultimately confronts the burden of motherhood and what is passed down across generations. (Joy Han, edited by Xiyun Li)
Director’s Statement
Often father and daughter look down on mother (woman) together. They exchange meaningful glances when she misses a point. They agree that she is not bright as they are, cannot reason as they do. This collusion does not save the daughter from the mother’s fate.
