plot, cast, French film review |Style

In the near future (very present) a strange disease transforms men into beasts… What will become of the “different”? He arrives in the room fantastic, realistic and melancholy French film The Animal Kingdom by Thomas Cailley. With Romain Duris, Paul Kircher and Adèle Exarchopoulos.

In 2023 it opened the Un certain regard section of the Cannes Film Festival, and has won 5 César awards: visual effects, costumes, original music, sound, photography. For us it is the title not to be missed in theaters this weekend.

France, near future. A mysterious disease is transforming many humans into animals. François Marindaze (Romain Duris and the teenage son Emile (Paul Kircher) are going to visit Lana (Florence Deretz), François’ wife and Émile’s mother. The woman is locked up in an institution as mutant. During the journey, stuck in traffic, the two see a winged creature that suddenly frees itself from the ambulance that was transporting it.

Lana, whose voice we barely glimpse bandaged face, she will soon be transferred to another facility in a small village in the south of France. François and Émile will move to be close to the woman. A vehicle with some mutants on board is involved in an accident and the creatures flee. Perhaps Lana is also among these.

Policewoman Julia (Adèle Exarchopoulos) he sets out on the trail of the mutants to arrest them. While father and son try to adapt to their new life in the countryside, Émile begins to show symptoms of mutation…

Parable sentimental-ecologistcoming-of-age story, human gaze, almost melodramatic and very heartfelt about dissimilarity. The Animal Kingdom by Thomas Cailley (The Fighters) is one of the rare contemporary films to succeed in knead powerfully fantastic and realistic, genre cinema and authorial gaze.

The topoi of science fiction genre (mysterious mutations, various dystopias) are filtered through the coming of age narrative, the disturbing melodrama and multiple apocalyptic suggestions. The visual and sound effects allow the viewer to perceptively immerse themselves in the“other” universe told.

The screenplay is extraordinary special effects and protagonists – from the young Paul Kircher to the “father” Romain Duris, up to the “policewoman” Adèle Exarchopoulos – in giving verisimilitude to the fantastic world narrated. The suspension of disbelief never wavers. The author seems to ask/ask us in every shot: what is “normal”?

The film’s notable original soundtrack, César Award 2023, it is signed by the Italian musician Andrea Laszlo De Simone. It mixes sounds of nature created ad hoc, instrumental melodies also with orchestra, electronic sounds and fragments of dialogues. Heartfelt, evocative, suggestive and hypnotic like the film. You can listen to it in full here or download it in CD, vinyl and mp3 format.

We advise you to recover some classic “mutants” such as The Toxic Avenger – The toxic avenger (1984) by Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman (not currently available in Italy, available on imported DVD), X-Men (2000) e X-Men 2 (2003) by Bryan Singer (both on Disney+), Logan – The Wolverine (2017) by James Mangold (Disney+). Also worth seeing is the authorial vampire horror let me in (2008) by Tomas Alfredson (on DVD CG Entertainment) and the auteur comedy Adventures of an Invisible Man (1992) by John Carpenter (streaming for free on PlexTv).

Finally, two masterpieces by David Cronenberg not to be missed: The demon under the skin (1975, Prime Video and CultPix) e The fly (1986, Disney+).