Animal Kingdom in theaters: it’s the year’s most ambitious monster movie, it’s French, and it’ll blow your mind

From its first to its last seconds, Animal Kingdom thrives on mystery. The film never explains how or why humans suddenly turn into animals. Instead of diving into scientific monologues, Thomas Keil focuses on adventure, family drama, horror and even comedy. His film is all of these things at the same time, as if no box can fit it.

The project, unusual in the landscape of French cinema – but also in the midst of change – was born from an original idea by Pauline Mounier. The script of this young author, a former student of Femis School, was noticed by the director, who decided to co-write it. The plot follows the journey of a father (Romain Dury) who searches for his infected wife with his son (Paul Kircher).

“This story, I found to be obvious, is super disturbing, explains Thomas Keil. JI wanted to talk about the body, about difference, about transmission, about how we pass the world on to our children and how we try to reinvent what has been destroyed..”

animal kingdom It is both an ecological work that explores man’s relationship with the rest of life and beyond humans, but also a political fable. The feature film draws many parallels with themes that are well embedded in our reality, such as rejection of the unwanted and diseases that disrupt our daily lives.

However, the film quickly manages to escape reality when it reveals an impressive array of its creatures. Ironically, Thomas Keil is not a fan of the fantasy genre. “At least I’m not from therehe specifies. I don’t have a video library of hundreds of mutant movies and I don’t know much about them. I approached this question naively.”

There is a brilliant French know-how.

All in all, Animal Kingdom is a truly fantastic piece of work and fully lives up to the legacy of David Cronenberg’s The Fly and The Island of Dr. MoreauA novel by H.G. Wells.

Special effects were done by Atelier 69 for makeup – also MFX – and MPC for digital – called VFX – two French companies. In total, about 150 artists worked on the film and about fifteen creatures were created. As for the actors, especially Tom Mercier and Paul KircherThe makeup stage can last up to four hours.

“There is a brilliant French know-how– says Thomas Keil. MFX, make-up and prosthetics workshops that are one of the best in the world and that work on international productions. Obviously, we took advantage of that.”

If the audience were to believe, the team always started from reality. Real actors were dressed in natural surroundings. “There is never 100% VFX and 100% of our sets are real. There is no green screen and no studio.“

Among the most complex creations are Fix, the bird-man played by Tom Mercier, whose wings weighed 3 or 4 kilograms each, and Lana, the mother bear, who was part animatronic – a remote-controlled team – and part digital.

The result will live up to expectations and confirm that the film by Thomas Keil will be a landmark in the history of French cinema. Perhaps the beginning of a new reign?

Commentary collected by Thomas Desroches, Cannes, May 2023.

Thomas Keil’s Animal Kingdom, in the cinema.