With Animale, in cinemas November 27, 2024, Franco-Algerian director Emma Benestan unveils a second feature film (after Fragile) of the highest order, devilishly effective in its discourse and direction.
A genre film ( westerns and wide-open spaces, but not only) on the verge of fantasy, Animale stars Nejma(Oulaya Amamra) as a young female bull raiser. Working on a ranch in the heart of the Camargue, she dreams of being the first woman to challenge the bulls in the arena, by taking part in one of the famous Camargue races.
A counterpoint for the young French actress, previously confined to urban roles(Divines, Le Monde est à toi), whose energy and naturalness carry the film from start to finish. In this world of men, Nejma is nonetheless accepted. To her male colleagues, she ' s "the princess", "the little one", and the film sidesteps the question of her femininity and the misogyny that might be expected in such an environment.
But just as the summer season is in full swing, violent murders suddenly occur in the marsh. Rumors soon spread that a bull was behind the disappearances. The hunt for the animal begins, and the film plunges into a fantastic atmosphere.
In the manner of Animal Kingdom and, more recently, Mi Bestia, the passage to adulthood is illustrated here by physical and bodily transformation, tinged with body horror. It turns out, in fact, that it's Nejma who's gradually being transformed into a beast - we're not revealing anything, but we understand it very quickly. She wakes up, with no memory, after a night spent in the twilight landscape of the marsh, under the toisement of Minotaur-like bulls, and notices changes on her body.
Avoiding any value judgments on the archaic 'art' of bullfighting and the animal suffering that goes with it - the film is neither a trial nor a plea - Emma Benestan signs a feminist and vengeful work that closes with one of the most intense scenes in French cinema this year.
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