Lebensader

A little girl finds the whole world in a leaf.

Story, Design, Direction and Animation: Angela Steffen
Additional Animation: Conrad Tambour
Producer: Sinje Gebauer

Produced at the Institute of Animation, Visual Effects and Digital Postproduction
Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, under care of Ged Haney

[HerbalToons]

As an animator I can bow my head down to this in awe. This is a masterpiece. 

[MakingtheCase]

I think this is about the little child finding joy in a simple leaf. They look at the world through the expression of the leaf, with youthfulness and optimism. The little circle of life seems beautiful to them because the fish that was killed helped to feed the bird's babies. However, the adult, who showed the child the scars life had given him, instilled in the child a sense of fear. That life can be cruel and angry, and death can be painful and senseless.

However, by the end, he comes to the conclusion that one animal is no different in value than another. We are all connected and united as one. All the joy we share and all the pain are part of the same perfect cycle we're all joined in.

[REPEKT]

I watched this sober; and came up with the same ideas. The girl in her naivety see the bright sides of life. After seeing the scars of her father, she realizes there is a dark side she wasn't seeing.

In the end, though, I though she realized that with all death comes LIFE. To me, it seemed like she was realizing even things that cause death, also cause life and come from life. 

The bubbles, to me, were mitosis. The animal at the end, which I'm surprised you guys didn't pick up on, was a heart-beat. The common denominator between us all, is we have a heart beat.

[jacobthomas]

we are all one creature, nice symbolism

[_adi_dev_]

My perception of this was:
-Child witnesses nature's beauty
-Child discovers ferocity of nature
-Child becomes enlightened to the oneness of nature

[gNatMusic]

I love how much emotion is put into these, yet left so up for interpretation as so we build and relate it to our own personal experiences, thus bringing us closer to this magical piece of art

[beanieb]

beautiful, especially the creature at the end....

[thebrickccentric]

This is one of the most creatively fluid yet geometrically interesting animations out there

[frenchyraptor]

At first I thought of making a cynical comment about drugs, but this turns out to be a very creative and thoughtful piece of art. Bravo!

[thisdudegotreal]

Made me think of the Infinite. That there are entire worlds at a microcosmic level and that we are within one such microcosm amidst an infinitude of macrocosms larger than this universe.

[Kaspar_Houser]

absolut top, das leben in seinen grundzügen, ansichtsweisen und sinn gezeigt

[feltongailey]

Absolutely my favorite on the entire platform.

[emericswitchyoureawesomean]

At the end, it's a heartbeat. What a cool way to explain it.

[velikolepniyreptiloid]

It is the greatest channel in the entire YouTube

[pattybe]

this is truly beautiful. This is the type of stuff my kids will grow up watching. Something they can really learn and grow from.

[jelly]

Whenever I see a leaf now, this animation plays through my head in an endless loop.

[emericswitchyoureawesomean]

I am in love with your art style. I'm going through a weird phase in my life and this about sums it up.

[Sparklebuttons]

In nature wether it's good or bad we are all connect in one incredible Eco system.

[lzrd]

Watched it while high. Here are my thoughts... while high:
-Its starts off showing the girl discovering nature/life, and her thinking it is all sunshine, lollypops and rainbows
-The girl then discovers the violent side of natur/the evil parts of life that seems to corrupt her elders
-Soon the girl will gain wisdom about the conceptualization of reality and consciousness.

I apologize in advance for these highdeas.

[Mablak]

The father was probably showing her battle scars of some kind, though it could have been cancer, a deformity, or any number of things. But he was teaching her to look at both sides of something before you judge it, the beautiful and the ugly, the good and the bad, etc., signaling her to look at the other side of the leaf.