Roots As Resistance, Not Restraint

Read Time:5 Minute, 15 Second

MOVIE REVIEWS
Papaya
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Genre: Animation, Family, Fantasy
Year Released: 2025, 2026
Runtime: 1h 14m
Director(s): Priscilla Kellen
Writer(s): Priscilla Kellen
Cast: Aretha Garcia Rollo, Tulipa Ruiz
Where to Watch: shown at the 2026 Berlin International Film Festival

RAVING REVIEW: What does freedom look like when the thing you are running from is also the thing you are meant to become? PAPAYA opens with that question embedded in its premise, and rather than answering it immediately, the film lets the idea stretch, bend, and grow alongside its protagonist. Priscilla Kellen’s debut feature is an animated story built on movement, curiosity, and resistance, but it’s ultimately about learning when motion is survival and when it becomes avoidance.

Papaya is a seed that dreams of flying, a desire that places her immediately at odds with the natural order of her world. In a forest governed by cycles, roots, and inherited wisdom, she refuses stillness, believing that stopping means surrender. Kellen frames this impulse with empathy rather than judgment. Papaya’s restlessness isn’t framed as defiance, but as an emotional response to expectation. From the beginning, the film understands that being told who you are meant to be can feel suffocating, even when that destiny is rooted in love and continuity.

The decision to tell this story without dialogue is central to its success. PAPAYA communicates entirely through motion, sound, and music, allowing the audience to project meaning without being guided toward a single interpretation. This choice makes the film unusually accessible across ages and cultures, while also deepening its clarity. Without words to soften or explain its ideas, the film relies on rhythm, color, and gesture to carry its themes.

Visually, the animation is vibrant without being overwhelming. Birdo Studio’s work balances bold color palettes with clean, expressive design, creating a world that feels alive but never cluttered. Papaya herself is animated with an infectious energy, her constant motion becoming both a source of joy and anxiety. Every bounce, roll, and coast reinforces her fear of stopping, of being claimed by a future she didn’t choose.

As Papaya journeys away from the mother tree, the film widens its focus, introducing creatures and environments that reflect different relationships to nature and change. These encounters aren’t framed as lessons in the traditional sense. Instead, they function as moments of observation, allowing Papaya to see how others exist within cycles of growth, decay, and adaptation. The film never rushes these interactions. It trusts that repetition and accumulation will do the emotional work.

The turning point arrives not through a confrontation, but through exhaustion. Papaya’s refusal to root cannot be sustained forever, and when she finally does stop, it’s not in a place of comfort or safety. The median strip of a highway is an inspired choice, visually and thematically. It’s a space defined by disruption, danger, and displacement. In this unlikely location, Papaya discovers that roots don’t mean erasure. They mean connection.

What follows is less a revolution in the conventional sense than a reframing of power. Papaya’s roots transform the environment not through force, but through presence. The film suggests that change doesn’t always require an escape. Sometimes it requires staying put long enough to reshape what surrounds you. This idea has a surprising impact, especially given the film’s gentle tone.

Talita Del Collado’s music plays a crucial role in guiding that emotional arc. The score moves between playfulness and introspection, giving shape to Papaya’s inner world without overwhelming it. Sound design fills in the gaps left by dialogue, grounding the fantasy elements in a tactile sense of place. The forest feels alive, responsive, and attentive.

One of PAPAYA’s greatest capacities is its refusal to condescend in its message to its young audience. While recommended for viewers five and up, the film doesn’t dilute its themes or simplify its emotional stakes. Ideas about destiny, resistance, and transformation are presented with clarity, but never flattened. Adults will recognize the story’s deeper resonance, particularly in how it frames growth as a negotiation rather than a victory.

The sincerity of the journey carries the film through the moments without losing its impact. PAPAYA also benefits from its creative lineage. Kellen’s background in Brazilian animation, particularly her work connected to THE BOY AND THE WORLD, is evident in the film’s confidence with abstraction and emotion-first storytelling. It’s tender without being mushy, imaginative without being chaotic, and politically aware without being moralizing. The absence of dialogue becomes a strength, allowing the film to speak through sensation and intuition rather than instruction.

PAPAYA ultimately argues that freedom doesn’t always mean leaving. Sometimes it means learning how to take root on your own terms. That idea, presented through a small seed with a big dream, lands with unexpected power. It’s a film that understands growth as transformation rather than conformity, and in doing so, offers something quietly radical for audiences of any age.

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