I Lost My Body (2019) – Review

The perspective that we have has a huge impact on how we see the world. This can be based on ideas, but also on a physical level. As a child I was always curious what the top of a car looked like (that turned out to be a disappointment when I was older), but filmmakers also use perspective to present the world differently. In E.T. Steven Spielberg often placed the camera at the level of the children, so that you were experiencing it from their perspective. But also Honey, I Shurnk the Kids or a Marvel film like Ant-Man show how different your world is when you experience everything when you are just as big as an insect. The perspective in I Lost My Body can rightly be called unique, because there are few films that show you what you experience as a hand without a body.

That hand “wakes up” in a laboratory and has a purpose. A long journey in which it has to deal with vermin and comes across a number of dangerous situations. However, the story about this hand is interspersed with the story of Naoufel (Dev Patel), a boy who became an orphan during his childhood and grows up in Paris, but in a situation where he receives no attention or love and he has no connection with the world and people around him. When he talks with Gabrielle (Alia Shawkat) for a long time through an intercom (while working as a pizza delivery boy), he feels something for her and tries to win her over.

 I Lost My Body is a film in which destiny is an important theme. Is everything in our life already determined and is it possible to do something unexpected to escape from it? Director Jérémy Clapin knows how to portray that nicely, in which flies play an important role. You might expect that the part about the hand is laughable, but nothing could be further from the truth. You sympathize with the events it goes through and hope that the hand can reach its goal. His perspective is unique, but feels incredibly realistic. What do you do when a pigeon tries to throw you from a building or what do you do when rats want to eat you?

The desire for a connection in both stories is beautifully portrayed. This is the type of animation film that’s unlike any other. The ending may be unsatisfactory for some, but it is a title that stays on your mind for a while.

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