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| source: theatlantic.com |
"In a million years, when kids go to school, they'll learn that once there was a Hushpuppy and she lived with her daddy in the bathtub."
Beasts of the Southern Wild is director Ben Zeitlin's Oscar nominated debut and was first screened on Sundance Festival. The movie is based on a play of the same title by Lucy Alibar who took part in writing the screen version.
In a fantastic community cut off from society by a dyke, six-year-old Hushpuppy lives among her numerous pets and her dad Wink on an island called the "bathtub". The little girl's voice over conveys her philosophical thoughts and imaginative power: she knows that humans are animals, too, and about how in nature, every tiny part affects the whole macrocosm. Eventually, "bathtub" gets completely flooded in a storm. In it's aftermath a group of those refusing to flee the area gets together, including our hero. She fantasizes about prehistoric beasts released from melting polar ice.
Narration is filtered through Hushpuppy's poetic point of view.* Hushpuppy, acted by Quvenzhané Wallis, might be one of the most energetic heroines on the screen there are so far. By first introducing the outsider- world of "bathtub" with it's special characters and then contrasting it with what you might call standard anonymous society, Beasts of the Southern Wild touches tabooed subjects such as dying or hygiene. There are those who dismiss the movie for what they think to be the glorification of anarchism. For me, the movie manges to provide an alternative view on how to lead life. Given her incredibly strong personality - mirrored in her curiously strange name-, it really isn't the case that Hushpuppy couldn't have chosen a life different to that of her father
Having read the thoughts of a 12 year-old on this very movie explicitly stating that she believes she couldn't quite grasp all of the movie, I agree with her and thus tell you: this really isn't a movie for children only. Beasts of the Southern Wild, that is Hushpuppy's unique character - and beautiful pictures.
*The voice over could actually be rooted in the former stage play monologues.
