Embracing Multilingualism: ‘The Untranslatable Forest’ Visualizes Words That Resist Translation

In The Untranslatable Forest, filmmakers Ivan Miguel and Andy Camou transform language into something tactile, emotional, and mesmerizingly cinematic.

Created for and debuting today, on the International Day of Multilingualism, the three-minute short forgoes literal translation in favor of atmosphere and metaphor, giving visual form to words that don’t have an exact English-language counterpart.

Set within an airport that serves as an ultra-modern Tower of Babel, the film turns a transient, hyper-functional space into something poetic and alive. Leaves sprout from ticket kiosks, branches overtake security lanes, and grass creeps along conveyor belts, suggesting that language, like nature, cannot be fully contained or standardized.

Built entirely in Blender, the short embraces experimentation in both design and narrative. Its meditative tone is anchored by Bryce Dessner’s “Le Bois,” performed by Kronos Quartet, while multilingual voice performances preserve the texture and cadence of each spoken language.

The Untranslatable Forest comes off as less about understanding words and more about feeling and respecting them. It’s an evocative reminder that meaning often lives beyond translation, and that the value of language is far greater than simple communication.