Loving home is a place you always carry in your heart. Le Retour des Vagues (The Return of Waves) is a French short animation about a young man who returns to his hometown and finds that time has stopped there. It is a 2020 graduation project work by three students (Manon Cansell, Alejandra Guevara Cervera and Edward Kurchevsky) from Gobelin, l’École de l’Image, and though its narrative is not quite so cohesive, its nostalgic themes of longing, remembering and coming to terms with one’s past are movingly presented. Somehow, even its inexplicability is also fitting, giving it a special aura and an otherworldly feeling. It also references the works of Satoshi Kon and Hayao Miyazaki (there are Perfect Blue and Spirited Away posters hanging in young man’s bedroom in the story), which is a nice touch, underlining the fusion of reality and make-believe in the story, which is also prevalent in these two animated works.