French fantasy cinema is doing well! The Animal Kingdom by Thomas Cailley discovered at the Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section, brilliantly demonstrates this. “We follow the trajectories of a father and a son in a changing world where humans begin to transform into animals for a mysterious reason,” summarizes Thomas Cailley for 20 minutes.
Adèle Exarchopoulos and Romain Duris are astonishing in this ecological fable, but it is above all Paul Kircher, 22 years old, who tames the viewer into a teenager transforming little by little into… We won’t say too much so as not to give away. “What is interesting is the way the animal manifests itself in a human body. My character changes throughout the film while continuing to resemble a human,” explains the actor.
Constant evolution
The director of Fighters, also creator of the series Ad Vitam, called on the special makeup effects of Jean-Christophe Spadaccini to give real substance to these creatures with which humans must learn to cohabit. “We tried to push everything we could do as much as possible with the actors, the prosthetics and the makeup, then when we couldn’t do it anymore, we moved on to digital effects,” remembers Thomas Cailley. The viewer had to believe in it without being distracted by the technique. »
A bird-man whose evolution we discover is just as astonishing as the wild animal that the high school student played by Paul Kircher becomes. “Paul’s body was molded, we sculpted it in the workshop, we added textures because all of this is evolving in the film,” explains Thomas Cailley. The truck opened and we saw a different Paul come out every day. »
A human dimension
The beauty of the creatures and the accuracy of the performers who embody them in no way eclipse the power of a work centered on the difficult relationship between an often overly authoritarian father and his rapidly changing son. “The adult does not mutate but it evolves,” underlines Thomas Cailley. The relationship between humans and nature which regains its rights in an unexpected way brings additional originality to this Animal Kingdom who does not lack humanity to confirm the talent of Paul Kircher.