Sofia Alaoui (director)
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Animalia, a French-Moroccan-Qatari co-production that premiered at last month’s Sundance Film Festival, opens with an intriguing set-up. A deeply pious pregnant woman of modest origins, Itto (Oumaïma Barid), looks forward to a day of quiet when her rich husband Amine (Mehdi Dehbi) and his family go away on business.
On the same day, a mysterious state of emergency is declared nationwide. Amine remains stuck somewhere on the other side of Morocco, while Itto is left alone in the family mansion.
We stumble a little, narratively, to believe that such a wealthy man would leave his heavily pregnant wife alone for a day, especially when we see in the opening shots that he and his family are rich enough to afford the work of a few maids, seen preparing and serving them a sumptuous dinner.
Amine calls Itto to reassure her that a trusted local man will pick her up and bring her to him the following day. Meanwhile, the weather gets more and more unstable, with wildly alternating sunshine, clouds and heavy storms. Nearby animals – dogs in particular – seem to act much more aggressively than usual.
All of this keeps us hooked, but then Animalia begins to descend into chaos after Itto is abandoned by the man who was supposed to drive her to Amine. She suddenly finds herself in a remote village where the men are suspicious of a pregnant woman alone in a hotel. Fouad (Fouad Oughaou), a kind-hearted hotel receptionist, offers to accompany her for the rest of her journey.
While the first part of the film is dominated by Itto’s mounting paranoia – increased after an accidental encounter with a German shepherd – the second part focuses on her personal fragility. This change of focus also determines a shift in the film’s style, as it moves from thriller to a mixture of sci-fi and psychological drama.
Technically, these different genres are skilfully rendered through cinematic choices, such as crisp close-ups of Itto’s torment, the limited but effective use of visual effects on the stormy Moroccan sky and making feral dogs even more terrifying, through their aggressive posture, bloodshot eyes and drooling mouths.
Director Sofia Alaoui takes the characters through a strange journey to two truths. Firstly, that experiencing something otherworldly can shake somebody’s beliefs and challenge their ideas about life and the existence of God. Secondly, that adversities may strengthen people who unwillingly embark on a path towards growth and freedom.
Of course, none of this is exactly groundbreaking, which makes Alaoui’s project seem a bit overblown. The idea of exploring the tension between faith and societal prejudices is fine, but she really needed to build solid connections between these conflicts and the probable first contact, which is flagged up elsewhere.
This weakness becomes even more evident during the closing sequence, as Itto, in a voice-over, tries to piece the puzzle together. That said, the film remains a rare example of African sci-fi which is worth watching for its originality and the unique, unsettling atmosphere it creates.
