“Sauvages” – heartbreaking, funny and political

Savages is an animated French-Swiss film by Claude Barras, the maker of My Life as Zucchini. The film is an original ecological piece which follows the young Kélia in her struggle to save the forest of Borneo from being destroyed for the harvesting of palm oil.

Swiss animation filmmaker Claude Barras is the director of My Life as Zucchini, the film adapted from the famous children’s book by Gilles Paris, a film that was selected for the 2016 Quinzaine des cinéastes, had met with audiences and won numerous awards (including a César). Co-written by Barras and Catherine Paillé, with the help of comic book author Morgan Navarro and writer Nancy Huston, Savages is an ecological and environmentalist film. Kéria is a little girl of mixed race – her late mother was a Borneo native. Kéria lives on the edge of the rainforest with her father. He works for the large multinational company that destroys acres and acres of palm trees every day to extract palm oil. Kélia, along with her young native cousin Selaï, Oshi – the baby orang-utan she has taken in – and a motivated young American scientist, will soon oppose the massive destruction of the forest.

The film is all at once heartbreaking, funny and political. And with Benoît Poelvoorde, Laetitia Dosch and Michel Vuillermoz – amongst and others – voicing the characters, you simply must run out and see Savages!

Traduction Emma Frigo