Apollo and Daphne is a clay-and-paper stop-motion animation that re-examines a canonical myth by attending to what is often obscured within its familiar telling. Instead of framing Apollo’s pursuit as an emblem of divine love, the work foregrounds the anxiety and coercive power embedded in this scene of chase and metamorphosis.

 

Daphne’s transformation is not treated as poetic transcendence, but as an act of desperate self-protection—an escape made possible only through self-erasure. The laurel, traditionally a symbol of honor and beauty, becomes here a marker of loss, vulnerability, and the persistent reach of power. Through tactile materials, fragmented forms, and shifting light, the animation brings attention to the emotional and bodily stakes that classical narratives frequently sublimate or romanticize.

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By slowing down a story that has long been naturalized within art history, the film invites a reconsideration of what lies beneath mythic surfaces: fear, resistance, and the complex negotiations women undertake in the face of pursuit and possession.