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BBFC RatingWe the Animals

Certificate15
Year2018
GenreDrama
Director(s)Jeremiah Zagar
LanguageEnglish
CountryUSA
Running Time1HR 34MINS
SeasonMain Programme

Documentarian Jeremiah Zagar moves into narrative features with this fluid, dream-like adaptation of Justin Torres’ autobiographical novel about a mixed-race family with three inseparable young sons in upstate New York.

Manny (Isaiah Kristian), Joel (Josiah Gabriel), and Jonah (Evan Rosado) are tearing their way through childhood. Their mother (Sheila Vand) and father (Raúl Castillo) have a volatile relationship that makes and unmakes the family many times over, often leaving the boys fending for themselves; and as their parents fight, Manny and Joel begin to grow into versions of their father while their mother seeks to shelter her youngest, Jonah, within the cocoon of home. Distanced from his brothers, Jonah becomes increasingly aware of his desperate need to escape and begins to embrace an imagined world all his own. 

Lyrical, impressionistic, arrestingly beautiful and strongly performed (with the boys all played by non-professional actors), Zagar’s heartbreaking film – part coming-of-age story, part sexual exploration, part magical realism – explores the animalism of young children alongside that of violent, warring adults.



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