Still: Thunderhead - Una Jongenelis

Panic attacks are hard to comprehend when you aren’t prone to them, and even harder to describe when you’re in the throes of one.

This is the dilemma that filmmaker Una Jongenelis addresses in her debut short film, the animated Thunderhead, selected for IFFR. In the film, when the feeling of panic comes on, the film’s heroine descends into a nightmare world populated by finger monsters and strange humanoid figures with giant ears instead of heads. What’s more, a giant and aggressive thunder cloud takes human form and begins to pursue the woman.

Hope comes, however, in the form of a sleek and illuminated alien being, a “super-self” who merges with the woman, sharing her powers and enabling them both to defeat the monster-cloud…at least until the next panic attack…

“My personal motivation to make the film was that I was having a very hard time explaining the very strange experience of anxiety and panic attacks,” director Jongenelis tells SEE NL. 

“So I wanted to make something very intense that would give an insight into the body and the brain and the head of someone who is very scared for this very short period of time. That's why I chose to make a film that's presented both in the real world and in this crazy nightmare, weird, slimy, dark place.”

Folk have panic attacks for a plethora of reasons, whether they be located in open or confined spaces, in close proximity to other people or in isolation. The trigger for Jongenelis is generally when she is at home and alone. The panic attack won’t last so long, she says - normally for the similar 8-minute duration of the film. “I can feel it bubbling up and I don't know what it is. The moment I realise that I'm having a panic attack is actually when it’s almost passed, after it already has had its high point.”

The director further points out how, when it comes to dealing with panic attacks, the flight or fight response is not recommended as a coping mechanism, rather to focus on something safe and sympathetic. “The rescuing mechanism to calm yourself down is actually self-regulation, the ability to find solid ground.” 

“There's this exercise you can do where you have to say out loud the five red things that you see,” she adds. “This helps you come back to the real world itself, with your feet on the ground. In the film, I wanted to have this mechanism also be a real thing, like a creature that you can interact with.” Hence, the role played by the reassuring, alien “super-self,” as Jongenelis refers to her.

The film is book-ended by 2D animated sequences, while the middle section is rendered in 3D. Furthermore, the fight sequence has a satisfying Lichtenstein-esque, ‘kerpow’-style cartoon vibe as our heroine and the thunder cloud engage in physical battle.

“After the panic attack is over, you’re back in the real world, but you're super tired and you feel weird and nobody knows what happened. So that's one of the most important reasons why I chose to have these two styles that clash so much,” the director tells SEE NL.

Did the process of animating the panic attacks itself serve as a coping mechanism?  “I think I had five panic attacks during the production,” Jongenelis admits. Was she making the film well, she wondered continually. And was she depicting accurately the panic attacks that she was at the same time experiencing? “Also, our ambitions were very high for the budget that we had. So it was a crazy project and a crazy process.” 

“But did it help me?” She ponders her answer. “Yes, it actually helped me a lot.”

Find out more about IFFR here.