When the paranormal enters daily life, humans panic. Not in the world of Thomas Cailley. For his second film, **Animal Kingdom **(in theaters), the director imagines a society in full change: human beings randomly transform into animals. A pandemic on a beastly scale. «I read the script after going through the strange lockdown period, he remembers Romain Duris, protagonist of the film together with Paul Kircher. I saw it as a representation of the next phase. A more advanced state of the virus.”
Rejected by those who have not yet been affected by hybridization, i mutants they are relegated to the rank of “monsters”, “insects”, “creatures” and parked in some centers dedicated to medical observation. So when they disappear into thin air, panic sets in. Coexistence is difficult and mistrust grows. At the heart of this society that has become a jungle of intolerance and discrimination, the director focuses on an emotional couple: François (Romain Duris) and Émile (Paul Kircher).
Father and son are looking for the woman of their life, Lana. She is the wife of the first and mother of the second, she was affected by the mutation and escaped from a convoy that was transporting her to one of the centers. In their search, François and Émile collide with their own limits, with the gaze of others and, above all, with the things in life that children hide from their parents.
A father-son duo up to the occasion
With Animal KingdomThomas Cailley could have been content with making a bold fantasy film made in France. A feat in itself. Instead he goes further and condenses his narrative around this heartwarming family duo. To form this tandem, he called on a key figure of French cinema, Romain Duris, whose usual nervous verve is this time calmed down in the role of an unforgettable father, who puts all his energy into his son’s love, hope and future. . Next to him, the twenty-one year old Paul Kircher, who stood out last year in Le Lyceen Of Christophe Honore, shines for his insecure charm, staggering gait and eccentric gaze, always lateral, perfect for playing a teenager in the midst of transition. «The relationship between father and son is the fulcrum of the film», she explains. «We focused on the intimate dimension of the story. The fantastic dimension is at the service of pure emotion.” The strength of Animal Kingdom it lies precisely in this: an extraordinary context and attention to a family tandem that collides with life.”
Romain Duris plays a father who is always on the alert and attentive. Protective, above all, willing to do anything to protect his son from his intolerance and dangers. From an ordinary father, he turns into a hero. «He takes the expected path to become a father, but in Animal Kingdom everything is multiplied tenfold by fantastic events,” observes the actor. «François sees his son transform into a man, just as he sees the people around him transform into animals».
Creepy creatures
On the screen, even i «monsters» disturb the viewer. An octopus man creates havoc among the shelves of a supermarket. A man-of-prey tries to learn to fly. Romain Duris faces a gigantic two and a half meter walrus. Thanks to the care taken with special effects, prosthetics and make-up, these hybrids are hypnotically beautiful. It is worth pointing out that they bear no resemblance to the wonderful bestiary of traditional fantasy films. The realistic appearance of fur, feathers, scales and deformed or atrophied limbs is reinforced by the precision of the cries and movements performed by the actors, such as Tom Mercierwhose bird language is as scary as it is touching.
As for the mutants, Romain Duris and Paul Kircher had some role models. Duris mentioned the Swedish vampire film Morsedirected by Tomas Alfredson, while Kircher conjured The fly by David Cronenberg. For his part, Thomas Cailley gave his actors the titles of films that explore family ties to the extreme: «He advised me to see À bout de course, La Balade sauvage And Requiem for a massage», confides Émile. «I didn’t let the “genre film” dimension weigh too much on my interpretation», says Romain Duris. «I wanted to concentrate on a score of raw feelings».
