“Sunflower and Matchstick”

This sequence is a silent, deeply emotional love story told entirely through pictures. It’s only a few minutes-long animation, but it feels like a whole tragic romance.

Here’s what happens, step by step:

1. We see a windowsill during the day. On it sits an empty flower vase, a box of matches, an ashtray, and some writing tools. The sun is shining.

2. At night, the moon is out. A tiny matchstick figure (with a red head) climbs out of the matchbox and lights himself to give light to the vase.

3. From the vase grows a small sunflower girl. She only blooms when the matchstick boy burns himself to give her light and warmth.

4. The matchstick boy keeps lighting himself night after night so the sunflower can live and be happy. She becomes more beautiful each time.

5. One night, he burns completely out and dies, turning into ash, just to give her one final burst of bright light. The sunflower girl watches in horror as he sacrifices himself.

6. In the end, the sunflower is fully grown and radiant, sitting in sunlight during the day… but the matchbox is now closed, the burnt match lies dead on the floor, and the boy is gone forever.

7. The final shot is just the windowsill again: the sunflower thriving in natural sunlight, the matchstick boy will never see, and his tiny corpse beside the matchbox.

It’s a heartbreaking metaphor:
He is a match — his only way to love her and make her bloom is to burn himself completely.
She is a sunflower — she needs light to live, but she can only watch him destroy himself to give it to her.

The whole story is about selfless, impossible, self-destructive love.