Volvo’s branded music video turns a break-up drive into flipbook animated escapism

Volvo has teamed up with content production agency Great Guns to release a branded music video, which follows Israeli actress Yuval Scharf as she drives through her surreal, animated imagination away from a bad relationship.

The spot serves as a music video for ‘Call My Name’ by The Goldman Brothers, with the Volvo V40 also taking a starring role.

The viewer follows Scharf through all the emotions of a break-up – namely sadness, anger, hatred, revenge and acceptance – as she drives in the wilderness between Jerusalem and Jericho in Israel. Her partner reappears as an annoying animated character that chases her car frame by frame in a flipbook-style, eventually turning into a full cartoon.

As he catches up with the Volvo, the protagonist realises she has the power to pelt with raindrops, ballistic love hearts and giant limbs. However just when he appears to have vanished he lands in live-action form next to her in the passenger seat.

The film ends as the couple drive on, not saying a word.

“We wanted to achieve something really out of the box and epic for Volvo,” said director Tal Zagreba. “In this film, the vehicle and the characters are equally integral and interconnected with the narrative - and the animation enriches this connection. I wanted the car to function as the narrator as it takes the lead character through the stages of a breakup.”

He added: “From pitching the initial concept, right through to post production, Volvo trusted us to create the film completely as we saw fit. They didn’t see anything we shot until the finished product - which totally blew them away. It was so rewarding for us to initiate this idea ourselves and be given the trust and freedom by Volvo to realise a final film that was so true to the original idea - and with such few limitations on creative direction.”

‘Call My Name’ will be distributed by Volvo on its digital media, music and social channels from today (11 January).