Rob Munday
When you think of short film in mainstream media the first examples that spring to mind are probably the Pixar shorts and Netflix’s “NSFW anthology” Love, Death & Robots. In the same vein as the latter, The Voice in the Hollow, created by Miguel Ortega and Tran Ma, takes a haunting, action-packed storyline and brings it to life with some attention-grabbing 3D animation. Dark, frantic and impactful, this fable-like tale will haunt your memory banks and demand rewatching.
“At the bottom of the pile, was a 10,000-year-old skeleton of a young paleo-Indian girl”
In an interesting turn of events, the storyline for The Voice in the Hollow came to Ortega when he was filming a few scenes inside a cave known as the moaning cave, for 2017 S/W Pick The Ningyo. As the filmmaker explains:
“The name came from a moaning sound, reportedly sounding like a young girl calling for help. According to reports, people would approached the small cavern opening at the top of a small hill, thinking the girl had fallen inside, since the hill was only a few feet tall, they assumed she fell 8-10 ft, what they didn’t realize was that it was a 200ft drop to the bottom.”
“In 1905 when the cave was excavated, they found a pile of skeletons from the dozens of people that were presumably drawn in by the sound of the moaning girl. The interesting part was that at the bottom of the pile, was a 10,000-year-old skeleton of a young paleo-Indian girl.”
Ala taunts her sister Coa after a successful hunt
Fascinated by this legend, Ortega became obsessed wondering how that first girl fell into the hole and imagined “a Caine and Abel-type story, where the hole represented the devil and the father was god”. From here the narrative for The Voice in the Hollow developed, with the writer/director creating a pair of competitive sisters (Coa & Ala) battling for the love of their father and the right to wear the mask of their tribe The Leopards and an ancient evil looking to tear them apart.
With a storyline that blends folklore, fantasy and horror, Ortega needed a distinct aesthetic to portray his on-screen world and so turned to a contemporary tool and some nostalgic influences. Created entirely in Unreal Engine, except for a few 2D animated scenes, the director cites “60’s and 70s westerns, crime, and horror films” as inspiration for the visuals, explaining the “intense color palettes” of his film came from the works of Mario Bava and Dario Argento, while the film’s bleak conclusion was provoked by the films by Sergio Corbucci.
“I wanted something that looked beautiful, with vibrant colors but tonally was as dark as could be”
Whatever the influences, The Voice in the Hollow is an absolute joy to watch, bustling with energy, action and character. From its kinetic opening hunt scene to that dark, uncompromising ending, Ortega’s film doesn’t give you a second of peace, its virtual camera constantly roaming its detailed world. It’s the kind of piece that will undoubtedly grab the attention of some bigger studios, but that certainly wasn’t the filmmaker’s intention when creating his short.
“After spending 3 years developing a feature with a big production company, I wanted to do something for myself”, he explains. “I didn’t care about the commerciality this had or whether this could be expanded into something else. I knew no one else would make a film like this, especially not in Swahili. I wanted something that looked beautiful, with vibrant colors but tonally was as dark as could be. Something that didn’t shy away from violence, nudity, and adult themes in animation”.