The Family That Dwelt Apart
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The Family That Dwelt Apart |
| Country of production | Canada |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1973 |
| length | 8 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Yvon Mallette |
| script | Elwyn Brooks White |
| production |
Wolf Koenig for the National Film Board of Canada |
| music | Eldon Rathburn |
The Family That Dwelt Apart is a 1973 Canadian animated short film directed by Yvon Mallette .
action
The Pruett family of seven lives on a small island in Barnegat Bay: father, mother, a pair of twins and three brothers, the youngest still a toddler. The family lives largely self-sufficient , eating canned fruit and vegetables, pressed duck and other things. Every now and then a little whiskey is made and when there is nothing to do in winter the family hibernates.
In a year the winter will be so icy that the connecting channel between the island and the mainland will freeze. The Pruetts could no longer reach the mainland by boat. At the same time, the ice is frozen so irregularly that crossing it on foot would be life-threatening. The Pruetts don't care and they live peacefully together in their house. On the mainland, however, someone remembers the trapped family and alerts the state police. A large-scale rescue operation by the US Army begins, especially as it is rumored that Pruett's son Charles has appendicitis .
Boxes with dried apricots and stock cubes are thrown onto the island by army bombers, three men lose their lives trying to get across the ice to the pruetts, and an airplane with rescue dogs on board is iced up and crashes into a power station, whereupon planes and dogs are killed. A rescue helicopter finally lands on the island and flies the surprised Charles to the hospital. For the sake of simplicity, a rescue team with doctors and a cameraman now operates the youngest son of the family, Chester, who dies a short time later from dried apricots eaten too quickly after the operation.
When Charles returns to the island after a long recovery, everything has changed: The house went up in flames from the sparks of one of the rescue planes. The family had then escaped to an emergency shelter on the island, where they were bitterly threatened to freeze to death. Mr. Pruett then passed around a bottle of alcohol, but it turned out to be carbolic acid and killed all family members within a short time. Charles now buries his family on the island and turns his back on home.
production
The Family That Dwelt Apart is based on the short story of the same name by Elwyn Brooks White , who can be heard as the narrator in the film. The story was first published in the New Yorker in 1937 .
Awards
The Family That Dwelt Apart was nominated in 1975 for an Oscar in the category " Best Animated Short Film ", but could not prevail against Closed Mondays .