Savages Review

The glowing colours radiate from the screen. Lush vegetation, crystal clear water, echoing birdcalls and rustling trees all take us right to the heart of a rainforest where everything thrives and plays its part in the greater scheme of things. It’s fragile and resilient at the same time, and we’re shown both in Savages, Claude Barras’s latest animation, a film that leaves us in no doubt where the director’s personal sympathies lie.

But this is also a landscape under threat, surrounded by the prospect of destruction. Workers from a big corporation have arrived to cut back the forest and farm it for palm oil, build a factory and slash the landscape in half with a road. The operation is protected by guards who kill the wildlife without a single thought and gun down a female orangutan. Her infant is rescued by local worker, Mutang (the voice of Benoit Poelvoorde) and his teenage daughter Keria (voiced by Babette De Coster), who call it Oshi. Both have indigenous roots and are joined by another member of the family, the young Selai (voiced by Martin Verset), who has left his tribe in the forest to escape the rising tensions that have arrived with big business. Unhappy with his new way of life, he heads for home again with Oshi in tow, and when Keria tracks them down, she discovers more about her personal heritage as well as becoming involved in the fight to protect their homeland.

WATCH OUR INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR CLAUDE BARRAS HERE

Barras weaves his deceptively simple magic in the same way as in his Oscar-nominated My Life As A Courgette (2016). His distinctive, hand-made stop-motion puppets give the characters an essential spark of life, while telling Savages through the eyes of the children gives it purity and heart, stripping away all the complexities that can go with the adult viewpoint. Issues like family relationships, understanding, respect and truth are all woven into what is essentially an environmental story, but that simplicity means the message is never blurred. It lands gently and contemplatively, but still with the power to make the audience think and debate long afterwards.

Savages sums up its approach right from the start, telling us, “The world does not belong to us. We borrow it from our children.” There’s a whiff of a religious tract in the statement, but its sincerity is never in doubt and is reinforced by the director’s character-driven style. Visually, the beautiful animation, vibrant colours and hand-made authenticity give it an emotional life that’s unique to stop-motion. No other animation does it in quite the same way, so that, even if you question the optimistic tone of the ending, it never undermines the power of the argument from this gorgeously executed appeal for the preservation of the environment over the pursuit of money and consumption. On the contrary. It strengthens it and makes it beautifully unforgettable.

★★★★

In cinemas from August 1^st / The voices of Babette De Coster, Martin Verset, Laetitia Dosch, Benoit Poelvoorde and Pierre-Isaie Duc / Dir: Claude Barras / MetDistribution / PG

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About the Author

Freda Cooper

Editor

A lifelong movie fan and a film critic for over ten years, Freda’s natural habitat is the darkened rooms frequented by fellow cineastes. She can also be found asking questions of some of the biggest names in the business – from Cate Blanchett to Daniel Craig or Mike Leigh to Pete Docter – or crafting reviews for a number of sites and publications, including The People’s Movies. And listeners to BBC Local Radio can catch her views on the latest releases. She always – and probably always will – cite The Third Man as her favourite film of all time. Her top ten? That’s a moveable feast …..

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