The city’s bustling markets, the French Quarter, landmarks of Franco-Tamil architectural heritage and the iconic Gandhi Thidal on the Promenade Beach serve a picturesque backdrop for an animation short film, ‘Goodbye Mamajee,’ written and directed by young Franco-Tamil director Taslyne Oumarkatar.
The story in animation form about a young boy Noor who is about to leave Puducherry for France, was released recently at the Alliance Francaise, at an event hosted by Vision Holistique, a consulting agency in sustainability and Abay, an NGO.
The boy’s mixed emotions — the swell of excitement of moving to a new land and the saddening prospect of separation from his beloved uncle — are delicately juxtaposed in this bitter-sweet film.
While launching the film at Alliance Francaise, Chief Minister N. Rangasamy lauded the effort of the filmmaker.
Speaker R. Selvam, Tourism Minister K. Lakshminarayanan, R. Kulasegaran, Chief Educational Officer, Directorate of School Education, Satish Nallam, Alliance Francaise president, Laurent Jalicous, Director, A. Suresh and Ananth B. of Vision Holistique and R. Sundaramurugan, writer and founder of Abay participated.
‘Goodbye Mamaji’ situates intimate storytelling in broader social context as it explores themes of displacement and intergenerational transmission. In its portrayal of an impending departure, family bonds, Indian culture, and, most importantly, the experience of leaving one’s homeland through the eyes of a child, the film mirrors the director’s own experience.
Entirely composed of hand-drawn images, the film was created without any use of Artificial Intelligence, its director said. Pointing to the lack of animated films that reflect Tamil culture, she hoped that ‘Goodbye Mamajee’ breaks new ground in this regard, as well as in using Puducherry as story backdrop.
The settings depicted in the film are deeply personal. Taslyne drew inspiration from real places her family once frequented in this erstwhile French outpost. The process involved meticulous research into photographs and personal memories from her travels here with her family, and ensuring that every detail remains faithful to the spirit and look of the city.
In a sense, the film is Taslyne’s heartfelt tribute to the journey her own parents undertook to leave behind the city of their roots to settle in France. “The story was inspired by my own family’s story, my relatives who left Pondicherry to start a new life in France. Noor is my father’s name, which is why the main character bears it as a tribute,” she said.
“A key part of my artistic approach is to portray and celebrate Tamil culture in an authentic and meaningful way”.
Taslyne, who studied literature at La Sorbonne, enrolled at the Beaux-Arts de Paris in the Image department, where she deepened her visual practice and artistic approach. Wanting to specialise in animated storytelling, she joined the master’s programme at École Georges Méliès and ‘Goodbye Mamajee’ came about as a graduation project.
The film earned 21 nominations around the world, selections at two Oscar-qualifying festivals, including New York International Children’s Festival, and bagged the best student film at Spain’s Animalcoi festival.
The filmmaker says she is keen to mirror her Indian Tamil culture in her artistic endeavours while addressing themes, such as immigration, integration, memory, and the role of women within her traditions.
The film was completed in six months by a team of co-directors — Jin-Hyung Park, Marie Susanyan, Léonardo Girardi, Emma Daillie and Antoine Furic. The music was composed by Angusan Pawalanandan.
Her co-directors, themselves children of immigrants, were a natural fit for a film on such a theme. “In a way, the theme of leaving one’s homeland resonates with all of us. That’s also why ‘Goodbye Mamajee’ carries such a universal dimension,” the filmmaker said.
Published – August 29, 2025 09:36 pm IST
