Hungarian animation filmmaker and director Flóra Anna Buda shares her vibrant vision of three women living in separate parallel universes. “My ambition was to create a story where I can define myself in the most honest way as a young woman,” says Buda of her 2019 Berlinale Shorts Competition entry, hinting that the three characters might also be expressions a single lived experience.

As a graduate of the acclaimed Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Hungary, Buda created Entropia as part of her final year project after she had a dream about a giant worm. In the film there are three universes: one represents the animalistic side of human nature, the second is a critique of consumerism, while the third symbolises the thoughts we have trapped in our minds.

Then a housefly—the animation’s central motif—becomes the literal bug in the system that causes the collapse of the three parallel worlds. Entropia is a film of immense hallucinogenic quality using playful crayon colors and neon lighting to create a world finding harmony in chaos.

Once described as a “coming-of-consciousness” film by Buda’s university tutor, the world the animator has created is one of a blissful, female wonderland that speaks of liberation, empowerment and self-understanding.