Puppet noir? "Paul" will make you believe

Puppetry and film noir are not things that people necessarily associate with one another, until now. Israeli film maker Adam Bizanski took the imaginative leap and cast a small scale puppet in the lead role of his short break up film "Paul" and I have to say the results are pretty convincing. Inspiration for the puppet character seems to come from the age-old admonition "Are you a man or a mouse?" (as well as Art Spiegelman's "Maus") but that doesn't compromise it's effectiveness. As employed here the puppet serves to inject a film that would otherwise be held back by a fairly pedestrian writing effort with gravitas and sympathy. It's diminutive scale also magnifies the sense of dread inherent in the noir settings as well as the character's sense of loss. 

The film 26 minutes long. If you have some time take a look.