MIFF 2014: When Animals Dream

It seems that the countries leading the world in terms of horror films are the Nordic ones. In particular, Norway and Sweden have produced some excellent horror and genre films within the last ten years, including Troll Hunter and Dead Snow. Now, Denmark has joined their ranks in producing an excellent werewolf thriller, that is both intelligent and chilling.

When Animals Dreams focuses around a young woman, Marie (Sonia Suhl), who lives in a small fishing community with her father, Thor (Lars Mikkelsen), and her wheelchair bound mother (Sonja Richter). When she gets a job at the fish processing factory to help her parents, Marie starts discovering strange changes in her body, starting with a rash on her breast. As the changed become more and more prominent, Marie starts exhibiting odd behaviour that startles others in her village. She also discovers these changes may or may not have something to do with how her mother ended up in a wheel chair. Eventually, the townspeople start hunting her down as a means to protect their community.

What good films do is present exposition in natural ways, that don't clunk up the narrative. They also let the audience use their brains to figure out what may be going on. This film does that, slowly unraveling the mystery of what is happening to Marie as she, and by extension the audience, come across each new piece of information. The word werewolf is never used, nor is it explicitly spelled out what actually happened to her mother, but through the information we are given, it's not hard to see what's going on.  It's very clever the way the film never gives full answers, just enough exposition to hint at what is going on. You rarely see films like that nowadays, let alone horror films.

Well, if that's what good films in general do, then good horror films take advantage of the supernatural creature/force/thingy and have them represent a certain aspect of society or whatever. And When Animals Dream does this as well. Now, as with any film, it could be interpreted in many ways, so this is just my interpretation. But for me, the werewolf and the changes going on in Marie represent female coming of age, and embracing your individuality and identity. This theory is strengthened by the fact that Marie, once she does start transforming, fully embraces the animal inside her. The townspeople's reaction, that of violence and condemnation, could represent the power of conformity and the suppression of female freedom. Again, just my interpretation. But it is nice to have a horror film where such interpretations can be made.

So, what is the most important part of a werewolf film? The special effects. And the effects that they use here are very subtle. We, unfortunately, never see a full transformation. But the snippets we do see are very well done, using both computer effects and make-up. The make-up here is used really well, as small changes are added to Marie's body and face, just to hint that something is happening. And her transformed look retains her human body, while her stance and face change drastically. It's a really effective, and different way to show a werewolf onscreen.

The cinematography is also really good, with some breathtaking views of Danish coastline. But it adds to isolation of the village, and the danger that Marie is in when she tries to leave. Through the isolation of the place, a tension runs throughout the film that builds until the climax. Its really effective, but it makes the film less outright scary and more subtly haunting. Which is good, because horror films that rely on jump-scares get really boring after a while.

So, if you're looking for a smarter horror film or just an excellent retelling of the werewolf story, then I would definitely recommend this. The gore is not overt, there are few bloody moments here and there, but for most of the time the film relies on atmosphere rather than gore or jump-scares. The story is excellently told, the acting is really good, and the cinematography is beautiful. Not you typical werewolf film, but much better for it because of that I think. Until next time, readers.

Broken

Why is there always an independent British that will undoutedly make me cry? Last year it was Tyrannosaur, and this year it's this hidden gem, that apparently debuted at Cannes last year, but of course this being Australia it didn't come out here until this year in May. And because of university interrupting my life, I didn't get to see it until this weekend, so it might be dying down in terms of cinema screenings, but it's still on at Nova quite a few times, in case anyone actually wants to go see it after reading this. And you should. Like Tyrannosaur, this film has incredible emotion. Unlike Tyrannosaur, it's not as dark as you think it will be. But first, a summary.

Skunk (Eloise Laurence, in her movie debut) is an eleven year old diabetic who lives with her brother, Jed (Bill Milner), and her dad Archie (Tim Roth) in a normal British suburb. One day, Skunk shockingly watches as one of her neighbours, Rick (Robert Emms), who lives with his parents, is suddenly beaten up by another neighbour, Mr Oswald (Rory Kinnear), an agressive man with three daughters. This event triggers a downward spiral in Skunk's life, as she starts high school and is bullied, while her father begins a relationship with her au pair, Kasia (Zana Marjanovic). The stories of these three families all intertwine with each other, bringing together a tragic, yet strangely life affirming conclusion.

So, this is based on a 2008 book by Daniel Clay that was inspired by To Kill a Mockingbird. And yeah, there are similarities. Scout and Jem are phonetically similar(ish) to Skunk and Jed, Archie is also a lawyer like Atticus was, Skunk gets a boyfriend named Dylan, who serves as the Dill of this movie. There are other similarities, like Rick being the Boo Radley character, who is misunderstood and a little creepy, and I guess Cillian Murphy's character Mike could be the Tom Robinson, since he is inadvertently accused with getting one of Mr Owswald's daughters pregnant. But one shouldn't base how good a film is on how well it adapts something, one should review the film as an entity in it's own right. Which is what I'm going to do now. I may come back one day and talk about how it kinda works as an adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird, but right now, let's just focus on Broken.

Eloise Laurence is going to go far. For her first film, she manages to hold everything together, and creates a likeable, cheeky and realistic character in Skunk. Also, the connection between her and Tim Roth is so believable. The scenes just between these two were the highlights of the film. Unfortunately, there aren't enough of them, only about 3 in total. But that complaint turns into a compliment because the film expertly paced. It's very plot driven, with each character given enough time to forward the plot. Yet, there are some quiet character moments as well, like the little scenes between Skunk and her dad. And while I would love to see more of those scenes, they would probably make the film drag.

 
Broken only lasts 90 minutes, but it is quite slow. However, that isn't a bad thing. Slow is quickly becoming a compliment for films among the arthouse scene, and as I said earlier, the pacing is perfect. It feels like it's just a character study, yet on reflection all the little incidents that happen all contribute to driving the actions of the character, and direct the plot forward So, while some may think that it is rather plotless and slow, for me it just shows that the film uses good story-telling to create a non-formulaic coming-of-age drama.

The acting is also really excellent. I know I kinda got talking about Eloise Laurence then got distracted by the pacing, but let's get back on track. Tim Roth is excellent, and it is nice to see him in a meatier role than the extended cameo he had in Arbitrage last year. Cillian Murphy is also good, but in a more supporting role than the advertising suggests. Rory Kinnear is scary good, and you really feel like he is an out of control man who cannot cope with the grief of losing his wife and the responsibility of raising three out of control daughters. Robert Emms is also quite chilling, portraying a man who is very mentally disturbed, and whenever he's on screen you just think that something is going to go wrong. Which it does. Whoops, spoilers.

So, the story is a little predictable and quite depressing, but there is a liveliness to it, that comes from both Eloise Laurence, and some of the techniques that they use at times. Towards the end, it goes a little dreamlike (for reasons I will not divulge), and there is some symbolism that is very ambiguous. It could mean the passing of childhood into ... teenage hood? Or it could simply be leaving the past behind you and looking forward into the future. I think it's more the former, a long-winded way to tell the audience that our main character is growing up.

Another thing that happens a lot is that the filmmakers will show the end result of a scene before showing the events leading up to what actually happened. The most obvious (and the one with the least amount of spoilers) is at the beginning, when Mr Oswald attacks Rick for no reason that the audience has been given yet. After the attack, we flashback to see what aggrevated him to start beating Rick up, and no, I'm not going to tell you what it was. If you want to find out, go see it for yourself. This trick is repeated a couple more times to the point that the novelty of it wears off a bit. But it's still interesting and refreshing to see a different approach to the show don't tell rule.

I don't really want to say anything else because a lot of the joy found in the film comes from not knowing that much about it. Usually, I hate trailers that don't tell me what goes on in the film because they frustrate me, but I am thankful for this one. I will say that it did make me cry, well, the ending did. And even now that it's been a couple of days since I've seen it, thinking about it still makes me cry. This film is so breathtakingly refreshing, not only for the new story-telling techniques it uses, but it takes a genre that has been stretched in every way possible, the coming of age genre, and gives it a new life, even if it does take inspiration from an old favourite. Female orientated coming of age stories are so rare, and generally focuses on teenage girls rather than pre-pubescent, so I am really pleased that this is as good as it is. If you are interested, I can't recommend it enough. Until next time, readers.