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Coming home is not an easy business. In the absorbing Portuguese animation short ‘Dog Alone’ (C\u00e3o Sozinho) by Marta Reis Andrade<\/strong>, a Portuguese\/French co-production (BAP Animation Studios\/IKKI Films), that premiered at the 2025 edition of Animafest Zagreb<\/a>, we experience the main character’s effort to reconnect through the story of a howling dog.<\/p>\n Starting from a crude farewell scene in the UK (one of the few interior scenes in the film), Marta walks via walking silhouettes before she boards to her family home. In the courtyard, a place for family grouping, she can see her grandpa and his shattered glasses (the multiple scratches come as if made out of needles); the grandpa won’t talk, but all the other family members (5 in total, like the 5 original dogs of the story) will brief her about a dog tragedy.<\/p>\n Andrade, having studied in Portugal, Czech Republich (FAMU) and the Royal College of Art <\/strong>(her intimate but adventurous ‘Come to Me’ is her first year film, with the BAFTA-shortlisted ‘The Village Game’ to follow) is the perfect carrier of a story that needs multiple story planes to operate. Alternating between wide shots and close-ups when in danger, she uses her simply drawn but memorable character designs (our favorite: Tono’s elongated legs and shoes) to express curiosity and interest (while sometimes, pointed angles are a sign of danger).<\/p>\n Drawing from the same magical realism setting of Regina Pessoa’s film, Andrade has a valuable collaborator in the music department (music by Grillo); music here makes all the drama (and the resulting agony) pronounced, not just stated.<\/p>\n This is a film that details in a sharp way the difficulties of homecoming -and reconnecting. Far from a forced sentimentality, the film earns its expected empathy -and gives us a vivid portrait of the essential family experiences to be simply put back into the surface.<\/p>\n \n Watch the ‘Dog Alone’ trailer:<\/em><\/h4>\n