The Price of a Hug: Exploring the Surreal World of “Matta and Matto”
Imagine a world where the simplest human comfort—the warmth of a hand or the brush of a shoulder—is strictly forbidden. In their hauntingly beautiful 10-minute animated short, Matta and Matto, filmmakers Bianca Caderas and Kerstin Zemp invite us into a dystopian reality where physical touch has become a lost luxury. It is a place where loneliness is the status quo, and the hunger for connection leads the desperate to a very strange destination: the Hotel Vaip.
A Refuge in the Labyrinth
At the heart of this story is a transient, mind-bending hotel run by an eccentric duo who give the film its name. Matta and Matto offer a fleeting sanctuary for those aching for contact. Inside the hotel’s deceptive labyrinth of rooms, guests find that their deepest desires for intimacy are not only met but surpassed through a series of surreal, tactile devices.
However, this sensory ecstasy is not free. In a darkly poetic twist, the price of admission is a piece of oneself—specifically, a finger. Matta and Matto take these offerings and transform them into the very machines that provide the illusion of touch, leaving their guests “hooked” like addicts even as they lose the literal means to feel the world around them.
Crafting Madness and Reality
Produced by YK Animation Studio in Switzerland, the film is the latest collaboration between Caderas and Zemp, who both studied at the Lucerne School of Art and Design. The project was an intensive labor of love, involving a complex layout phase of around 140 scenes before its completion in 2023.
The directors describe the film as an exploration of how closely madness and reality reside together. While the premise is surreal, it carries a deep emotional weight that resonates in a post-pandemic world. As Caderas notes, the story serves as a vital reminder of how essential small, everyday human interactions truly are to our well-being.
A Haunting Reflection on Connection
Matta and Matto has captured the attention of the international film community, appearing at prestigious festivals like Premiers Plans d’Angers and being featured as a “Short of the Week”. It stands as a “hauntingly mesmerizing” vision of a society stripped of its humanity, asking us to consider what we would be willing to sacrifice for a single moment of connection.
As the hotel eventually vanishes over the horizon, it leaves behind souls who are both satisfied and tragically diminished—a powerful metaphor for the enduring hunger for human intimacy. This short film doesn’t just show us a dystopia; it holds up a mirror to our own need for the “small interactions” that keep us whole.
Exclusive director’s commentary available in audio settings
In a dystopian world where touch is forbidden, Matta and Matto offer refuge to the lonely at Hotel Vaip. In the deceptive labyrinth of mind bending rooms at their transient hotel, deepest desires are fulfilled and surpassed, but this comes at a price.
Idea & Directors: Bianca Caderas, Kerstin Zemp
Producers: Joder von Rotz
Prod. Manager: Joder von Rotz
Storyboard: Bianca Caderas, Kerstin Zemp
Storyboard Consulting: Lorenz Wunderle
Design: Bianca Caderas, Kerstin Zemp
Characterdesign: Kertsin Zemp
Layout: Bianca Caderas, Kerstin Zemp, Danay Gijzen, Lorenz Wunderle
Supervision Animation: Kerstin Zemp
Animation & Coloring: Kerstin Zemp, Bianca Caderas, Etienne Mory, Amélie Cochet, Danay Gijzen
Additional Animation: Martine Ulmer
Backgrounds: Bianca Caderas
Compositing: Joder von Rotz
Voices: Anina Rether, Benjamin Herold, Dominique Barth
Voice Recordings: Noah Lüthi
Music: Philipp Schlotter
Sounddesign & Mix: Noisy Neighbours, Etienne Kompis
