LES BÊTES SAUVAGES / WILD BEASTS

What are green rose-ringed parakeets – exotic birds – doing in Brussels city centre in winter? Why is a fox in the back of a car on the French-Belgian border? And what will become of the family of hippos on the loose in a Colombian river? In Wild Beasts Eleanor Saintagnan and Gregory Motte present (in the form of a film) a safari in three chapters, the protagonists of which have bristles, feathers or cardboard and share the fact of having been placed by Man in an environment that was not made for them, although they have nevertheless prospered. Just like their characters, the film-makers take pleasure in going where you do not expect them to go. Crossing borders on the trail of animals, jumping from one scene to another, but especially from one genre to another, the film combines three stories which resemble modern myths and joyfully blends investigation, sketches, street interviews, archive footage, wildlife documentary, reconstruction, performance, etc. it is a pretext for all sorts of antics, the wild beasts are scary in name only, and interest Eleanor Gregory and Motte Saintagnan less that those who free them, kidnap them or import them, in a childish, generous or even poetic gesture that is maybe even a little crazy and which seizes the filmmakers in their turn. (CG)