“The Hyperboreans,” the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight entry from Chile, defines the inventive works that have emerged from this small nation. Many of its films touch on traumatic national events of the past but play with rarely explored genres in the region. Case in point: the country’s recent Oscar submission, “The Settlers,” about Chile’s bloody colonial 1901 battle in its south, is a neo-Western.

Helmed by animation mavens Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña, “The Hyperboreans” (“Los Hiperbóreos”) combines live action and stop-motion animation in a story that also stands out for its singularity. In it, Chilean actress and psychologist Antonia Giesen films a script from her patient’s mind, leading to a reality-bending spiral when she discovers it originates from Nazi poet Miguel Serrano.

“We planned this as an exhibition of the filming process at an art gallery in Chile, so we filmed this in a single space and with only one actress,...