Nathan (Je m'appelle Nathan)

Nathan is the main character in the French short film Je m'appelle Nathan (tl. My name is Nathan).

Character creation
Director Benoit "Siward" Berthe made the short as a project during his 4th year at Supinfocom Valenciennes, a French computer graphics university. For feasibility purposes, the short could only contain one character, which led to the idea of having a character stuck in his own world. In parallel, the imagery of a birdcage was inspired by an illustration from Rebecca Dautremer for the Clermont Ferrand short film festival. Berthe watched videos of autistic children to try to accurately reflect the body language.

Synopsis
Nathan is abruptly awakened by the origami bird in his head starting to chirp. He gives it some seeds to eat, which gives a temporary respite, but the bird soon starts getting agitated again, chirping loudly and pecking at the inside of his head. Nathan covers his ears and starts rocking to calm the bird.

Appearance
Nathan is a young boy. The backside of his head is a birdcage containing an origami bird and a bird swing. He has a drawer in his forehead which contains birdseed.

Trivia

 * Coincidentally, France's Grande Cause Nationale (lit. "grand national cause") for 2012 was also autism.