Andreas Hykade’s The Runt appears to be a deceptively simple film, but rumbling beneath are a variety of deep and emotional themes ranging from loss of innocence, ritual, responsibility and death. © Hydake/Film Bilder.

Like an old blues/folk song, Andreas Hykade’s latest film, The Runt is deceptively simple. A boy lives on a farm with his uncle and father. They breed and kill rabbits. A rabbit gives birth. The boy wants to keep the runt. The uncle agrees, but says that after a year he must kill it. The boy agrees. Time passes. The two “runts” bond, but the day finally arrives when they must go the way of their fates. And so it goes. Of course, nuttin’ ain’t that simple. Rumbling beneath the verses are a variety of themes ranging from loss of: innocence, ritual and responsibility, and that familiar ol’ refrain we will all one day sing: death.

The Runt is the final part of Hykade’s “country” trilogy that includes We Lived in Grass (1995) and Ring of Fire (2000). The trilogy deals with Hykade’s childhood in the Bavarian countryside. “I remember the country as a dark and vital place,” says Hykade. “It shaped me and inspired me. As my work is about personal experience it was just natural to do these films.”

The Runt began with a 2001 drawing from Hykade’s sketchbook, which showed him watching his uncle kill rabbits.

Initially, Hykade had no plans to do a trilogy, but after We Lived in Grass, he felt there still some issues left unsaid about his protagonist’s sexual desires and violent tendencies. “I did Ring of Fire to try and dig deeper into the sexual aspects. When I saw the two films together I got the impression that something was still missing. So I did The Runt about killing.

The Runt began with an image from Hykade’s sketchbook. “In 2001,” remembers Hykade, “I did a drawing of myself watching my uncle killing rabbits — an image I remembered from my childhood. A few years later I went through my sketchbooks, discovered the image again and it really hit my deep inside. I had the feeling that this drawing is quite modern. ‘We all need the killer,’ I thought. ‘We don’t want to do the shitwork.’ That’s why we’re left weak and always depend upon the killer.

At the same time,” Hykade continues, “the subject connected to the past. The idea of killing rabbits to eat them seemed to be centuries old. I also felt that the subject connected a personal story to a collective myth.”

The Runt is the final part of Hykade’s “country" trilogy. The first part, We Lived in Grass (1995), deals with his childhood in the Bavarian countryside. © Gambit, Filmakademie Baden-Wurttemberg and Film Bilder.

The Runt is almost entirely based on Hykade’s own experiences. “My father and my uncle used to have these rabbits. Each time the mother rabbit got some newborns, my father and uncle would talk about how many they’d like to keep. The rest of them were put into a basket and my uncle would throw them against the wall to kill them. But I fell in love with this cute little rabbit — the runt — and wanted to keep it. ‘Alright,’ said my uncle. ‘I give you the runt, but you take care of it and you kill it in one year.” “Yes,” I said. “I’ll take care of him and I’ll kill him in one year.’”

Like his protagonist, Hykade never did kill that rabbit. Thirty odd years later, while making the film, he finally decided to confront his fear. “When I did the showdown scene at first it just awful. The whole scene just felt fake.” So, Hykade rang up his uncle and asked him if he could come by and help with the rabbit killing. “I turned up and there were six rabbits to kill. I said: ‘I will assist you on the first three and I will kill the second three.’ So I did.

It was very specific. I had to accept that I am a killer and overcome sentimentality. The rabbits won’t be dead until all the blood has run out and even then their flesh shivers for a while. And the stomach will still move a few minutes after you cut it out. When I went home I changed the showdown in a night and now I think it’s specific without violent pathos. I will eat one of the rabbits I killed at the premiere of The Runt. [For the record, The Runt is making its world premiere at this year’s Ottawa International Animation Festival].”