'I Lost My Body' Trailer: A Disembodied Hand Searches For Meaning In This Cannes Darling

Finding yourself takes on a whole new meaning in I Lost My Body, a critically acclaimed French animated film based on a novel by Amélie writer Guillaume Laurant. A disembodied hand searches for its body and begins to remember its old life when it was once attached to a pizza boy named Naoufel who lived and loved, in beautiful 2D animation. The Cannes darling was snapped up by Netflix, which has released the I Lost My Body trailer below.

The film follows a severed hand that escapes a Parisian laboratory and roams the city in search of its original body. A surreal fantasy drama, I Lost My Body flashes back to the life of the hand's owner, an ordinary pizza boy named Naoufel whose love story with a librarian named Gabrielle plays out throughout the film. Their love story may hold the answers to what happened to the hand. I Lost My Body certainly has an odd premise, but it looks like a gorgeous, poetic 2D-animated film that you can expect from a country that behind such imaginative fare like The Red Turtle, The Triplets of Belleville, and Persepolis. It feels like France is single-handedly carrying the indie animation industry, or at least there to fill out the artsy slot in the Oscars' best animated film category.

I Lost My Body premiered at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, where it became the first animated film ever to win the Nepresso Grand Prize. The film, based on the novel I Lost My Body (J'ai perdu mon corps in its original French) made the rounds at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival and Fantastic Fest, where it collected even more accolades. Netflix snapped up the worldwide distribution rights and will be releasing it in select theaters before its streaming debut in November, presumably for a short awards-qualifying run.

Here is the synopsis for I Lost My Body:

In a Parisian laboratory, a severed hand escapes its unhappy fate and sets out to reconnect with its body. During a hair-raising escapade across the city, the extremity fends off pigeons and rats alike to reunite with pizza boy Naoufel. Its memories of Naoufel and his love for librarian Gabrielle may provide answers about what caused the hand's separation, and a poetic backdrop for a possible reunion between the three. Based on Guillaume Laurant's novel "Happy Hand."

I Lost My Body hits select theaters on November 15, 2019 before it drops on Netflix on November 29, 2019.