Animalia

Alaoui, along with cinematographer Noe Bach, bring to us a dazzling portrait of a country little seen, and a good deal of the film’s charm and interest derives from the way she has captured different strata and regions of Berber and Arab society. Enjoyable little quirks abound (everyone seems to travel by motorized tricycle). The characters she meets are vivid and (to the benefit of the film’s suspense) often unreliable in a crisis, with the exception of Faoud (Faoud Oughaou, who was the lead in Who Cares if the Goats Die), and whose soulful character rescues Itto from a dead end village.

As to the themes and the message, it feels like we are watching a story on many levels. Is the subtext about Western hegemony? When the film switches from Moroccan dress and earth tones to the gleaming hospital Itto is finally admitted into to give birth, the change in environment is shocking and obvious. It seems that, up to this point, Animalia has been rendering an entirely different country. Then there is the emergency, which seems to elaborate on this interpretation: A strange and alien intelligence is abutting her home and her life, all-powerful and imponderable, its presence signaled in some magnificent and surreal visuals of the environment.

“…the film tackles questions of revolution and privilege.”

Equally, the film tackles questions of revolution and privilege. Itto is a bridge between the common people of Morocco and the ruling elite. The country she is in is undergoing a completely mysterious change (I’m being vague on purpose here; please just go watch it). Towards the end of the film, Itto’s snobbish mother drops a plate of food, seemingly apropos of nothing, and her reaction is telling: a mute shock. The implication seems plain, in times of change, those who hold the most have the most to lose, perhaps making a danger of them. As to the alien force that is causing all the mayhem, it is rendered in extraordinary, deft, and oblique depictions of a natural world that no longer seems blind and unorganized.

Animalia is a very fine movie that combines David Cronenberg’s gritty philosophizing with David Lynch’s surreal poetry. It is a thrilling debut that should not be missed.