filmbore pick of the week - Beasts Of The Southern Wild

Beasts Of The Southern Wild

Director: Benh Zeitlin

Screenplay: Lucy Alibar, Benh Zeitlin

Starring: Quvenzhané Wallis, Dwight Henry, Gina Montana

Year: 2012

Language: English

UK rental release: February 2013

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As promised last week, I'll be looking at a few of the films recognised in the recent awards ceremonies that hail from an independent and world cinema nature. Following the highly enjoyable Rust And Bone last time round, this week I'll be looking at my second choice from the nominations frenzy, Beasts Of The Southern Wild.

Hushpuppy, (newcomer Quvenzhané Wallis) lives in a small bayou community, one a delta in Southern America fondly called The Bathtub. Living separately from the "dry world", in this tight-knit neighbourhood, she's blessed with a freeing life. Her sense of awareness appears heightened, through her lifestyle in The Bathtub, seeing the world around her through the eyes of of a believer in magic; beseeched from her own imagination and noticing the beauty in how everything is connected.

She is also brave and steadfast - a fiery young girl, stronger than her years. This is down to the tough love dealt out by her father, Wink (Dwight Henry, also a newcomer), in his methods to prepare her for tough times ahead. He is resolute in his survival instincts and expects only the most most rugged and staunched responses from his daughter. 

Hushpuppy's mother is not around however. She pines for her, still talking to her in her absence, but stays strong like her father thanks to his tenacious parental skills and her own resilience. This ensures an incredible relationship with her father. As tumultuous as it appears, there's a powerful bond between them, simmering under surfaces that safeguard inner fear.

Still, there is a form of matriarch in Hushpuppy's life. The Bathtub's teacher Mrs Bathsheba (Gina Montana) warns of a potential apocalyptic event, where ice caps will melt and flood the lands, releasing an ancient race of giant beasts known as the Aurochs. The looming storms, due to increased environmental changes, bring alarm to the inhabitants of the bayou, but Hushpuppy is unfazed. 

Her unyielding upbringing will soon be put to test though. Wink is not well, his health withering every day, spelling a bad future for them. An incident in Hushpuppy's trailer, and the subsequent fight with her father, set the course for an unexpected change in her life...then the storm arrives!

Adapted from Lucy Alibar's one-act play, Juicy and Delicious, Beasts Of The Southern Wild is an brilliantly unique picture. Don't let the noticeable independent production fool you...there are a lot of subtly genius elements at play, combining in a presentation both poetic and elegant.  

For a start, you'll notice some of the beautiful camera work involved, thanks to the cinematographer, Ben Richardson. Lots of handheld operation, using 16mm film fills your screen with eclectic depth paired with natural grain. Richardson has stated that he tends to light environments and settings as opposed to actors, and then allowing the performers to step into the lit arena's, which is very noticeable in the darker scenes.

This helps with some of the more intense scenes too like when the storm arrives, for instance, where the sporadic use of both movement and sound help to give the impression of a terrible calamity. Even the director's own sister, Eliza Zeitlin, had input, turning her hand at some of the homegrown artwork and animals you see in the film, adding an earthy personality to the habitat of The Bathtub.

There is a real unique use of sound throughout too, even down to the smaller moments, like Hushpuppy listening in to the heartbeats of the animals on her land, assisting in demonstrating her connection to the natural world around her.

This takes us to Quvenzhané Wallis herself.  She is wonderful as Hushpuppy, absolutely stealing the show, displaying incredible depth for a child of her age. It's a tough job leading a film at the best of times, and when a nine year not only manages to succeed at this but astound you as the key cast member, it's no surprise that she received an Oscar nomination. She's a name we will not forget and I expect a promising future for the young star. Dwight Henry is great as Wink too. A newbie to acting just like Wallis, he displays incredible natural presence, and forms a strong pillar of strength as a father to Hushpuppy. Together, they have wonderful chemistry, which is difficult when considering the nature of the character's relationship. Perhaps their fresh approach to such a career has allowed them to form a more realistic connection, but however they've achieved this it truly works.

Part of what buys you into their relationship and the impending events is the minimal narration set out for Wallis. Along with the director, Lucy Alibar adapted the screenplay from her own play and there's some great dialogue moments (especially the "Beast it" moment) but it's the voice-over that gives real body and being to the whole picture. The simplicity behind this narrated text, spoken from the mind of a child, carries its own sense of sentience and enlightenment, and grants Hushpuppy with a wise, reflective view on her existence.

Of course, a lot of this weight is elevated by the gravitas behind the story. It stands as a reference to the recent disaster laid in wake of the infallible Hurricane Katrina and how such a real life event could manifest itself in the fantastical mind of a child. You question whether she is just allowing her younger, creative mind to draught a reality to shadow her from the truth or that she actually see things how they truly are in this, potentially, slightly futuristic world. Either concept works, and you can apply your own spin on it, but there's no disputing the impact that Katrina has had on the inspired sources for the tale.

Not only this, but thematically we question some of the other possible metaphors. For example, following the possibility of ice caps melting (is this in Hushpuppy's mind or relative to The Bathub's residents' experiences?) are the Aurochs really charging their way across the continent,or do they maybe represent a finite outcome to Wink's dwindling health? And is the world really ending, or are we made to feel that the chance of this occurring represents the state the bayou's community following years of neglect? These options are never thrown at us, however, but gently poised within the ongoing story if you so choose to perceive them in more detail. It's delicately handled, making the movie more approachable to a wider audience, and may be one of the reasons that it featured in so many award ceremonies.

But the question at the forefront is surrounding the Beasts, referred to in the title. Dismissing the Aurochs, all the inhabitants of The Bathtub are the true creatures of the southern wild,. This perspective forms due to views held by Hushpuppy's - that nature applies to us in the same way as it does for the remaining animals on Earth and we should remember how fragile our connection to this world really is.

Beast Of The Southern Wild gently raises issues surrounding the aftermaths of some of the catastrophes we've seen more frequently over the recent years. It helps to remind us of the impact we have on our planet through our effects on global warming in an imaginative way. But most importantly, it reaches into the heart of a child to show us how she deals with calamity and death, in turn helping us see our place in the world.

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