Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)

Directed by: Benh Zeitlin | 91 minutes | drama, fantasy | Actors: Quvenzhané Wallis, Dwight Henry, Levy Easterly, Lowell Landes, Pamela Harper, Gina Montana, Amber Henry, Jonshel Alexander, Nicholas Clark, Joseph Brown, Henry D. Coleman, Kaliana Brower, Philip Lawrence, Hannah Holby, Jimmy Lee Moore, Jovan Hathaway, Kendra Harris, Roxanna Francis, Jay Oliver

Quvenzhane Wallis. Maybe not the easiest name, but definitely one to remember. The very young girl plays the lead role in an impressive way in ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’ (2012) by Benh Zeitlin, who puts herself firmly on the map with this debut. Wallis plays Hushpuppy, a six-year-old girl who grows up in ‘The Bathtub’, a swampy area in the Mississippi Delta that has been flooded to protect the urban areas of southern Louisiana from the rising waters. Hushpuppy lives with her father Wink (an equally inexperienced and impressive Dwight Henry) and a lot of animals in a house made of wooden planks, corrugated iron and other litter, in the middle of the swamp. Her mother disappeared shortly after the birth of her daughter and so father Wink is forced to take care of it. However, he is in the grip of alcohol and as if that were not enough, he also appears to have a mysterious illness among the members. It is doubtful whether he has long to live and so he is now preparing Hushpuppy for a difficult life in which she has to take responsibility for her own life.

The residents of The Bathtub also have to cope with the threatening water. And there is indeed a storm coming. Hushpuppy and her father spend the night in a boat so that they don’t drown but sail away when the water invades their house. In the distance looms the civilized world, a place where the inhabitants of The Bathtub certainly do not want to end up, because they oppose the mainland with its industries and laws. The Bathtub, that’s their home. It may be a hard life, but these people feel good about it. However, the storm and rising water force them to give up their familiar existence. Benh Zeitlin sketches this harsh reality in the dreamy atmosphere of a magical-realistic fairy tale. When Hushpuppy learns about the melting ice caps, her imagination runs wild. She visualizes that the melting ice will free the immense and strong prehistoric aurochs she has heard about from their icy trap. And those mighty beasts thunder across the plains in search of Hushpuppy. It is a way for the girl to learn that the world and life is changing, and that she has to cope with that new situation.

Fantasy and reality go hand in hand in ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’. On the one hand, as a viewer, you are drawn into the dreamy world of Hushpuppy (who may still be young, but already manages to make surprisingly sharp observations in her own way), but not much later you are back on the swampy swampland of The Bathtub and you are confronted with reality. That ‘wake up’ is sometimes very literal, thanks to the camera work that is quite moving at times, but that approach does work. By the way, ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’ looks wonderful in all its rawness and purity and proves that you really don’t need to have huge budgets to make an eye-catching film. And that you really don’t always have to attract sounding names to be assured of good acting. Because both Wallis and Henry are playing the tiles of the roof. Little Quvenzhané, who was only five years old during the auditions, where the minimum age was actually six, was selected from over four thousand girls and turned out to be an enormous talent. The interaction with Henry is so convincing that you think you are dealing with a real father and daughter. The girl is also charming and easily carries the entire film on her slender shoulders. A talent to keep an eye on.

As intense as the residents of The Bathtub live, so intense is ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’. Even though the film was made with modest means, the ambitions of filmmaker Benh Zeitlin are great. The great thing about the young director, who based his script on Lucy Alibar’s one-act play ‘Juicy and Delicious’, is that he knows how to realize almost all those ambitions. Not bad for a debut! ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’ is a lively and passionate fable with a magical-realistic touch, about a girl who seeks her place in a world that never stands still. A small and timeless masterpiece that leaves a strong impact.