Archive of films Beasts of the Southern Wild / Beasts of the Southern Wild

USA
2011, 91 min

Section: Horizons
Year: 2012

Winner of this year’s Sundance, honored with the Camera d’Or at Cannes, and regarded as the most significant debut of 2012. This magically realistic and mythical narrative – recounting the tale of six-year-old Hushpuppy who lives with her father "at the edge of the world” in Hurricane Katrina-devastated southern Louisiana – is the work of an exceptionally talented filmmaker whose role models include Malick, Kusturica, and even Švankmajer, with whom he worked for a time.

Synopsis

In a forgotten wetland community cut off from the rest of the world by a sprawling levee, six year-old Hushpuppy exists virtually as an orphan. With her mother long gone and her beloved but wild-living father Wink rarely at home, Hushpuppy is left to her own devices and the company of semi-feral animals. She perceives the natural world to be a fragile web of living, breathing things, in which the entire universe depends on everything fitting together just right. Certainly the most remarkable feature debut of the year and a sensation at Sundance, Zeitlin’s visually stunning film approaches its quasi-mythical subject from a magical realist angle. It is a tribute to the courage and determination of the people of southern Louisiana in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. "I showed up for a two-month visit six years ago and I’m not going anywhere,” said the talented director, who as well as Terrence Malick and Emir Kusturica also admires Jan Švankmajer, with whom he worked for a while.

About the director

Benh Zeitlin (b. 1982) is a director, composer, animator, and founding member of Court 13: "an unholy mix of artists, animators, constructionists, editors, musicians, and storytellers.” His award-winning short films include Egg, Origins of Electricity, I Get Wet, and Glory at Sea. Zeitlin’s debut took the Grand Jury Prize at the 2012 Sundance festival and the Camera d’Or at Cannes for best debut.

Contacts

Aerofilms
Milady Horákové 383/79, 170 00, Praha 7
Czech Republic
Tel: +420 224 947 566
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.aerofilms.cz

Entertainment One Films International
175 Bloor St. East, Suite 601, North Tower, M4W 3R8, Toronto
Canada
Tel: +1 416 646 2400
Fax: +1 416 979 5824
www: www.eonefilms.com

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About the film

Color, DCP

Section:	Horizons

Director:	Benh Zeitlin
Screenplay:	Benh Zeitlin, Lucy Alibar na motivy divadelní hry / based on the stage play Juicy and Delicious by Lucy Alibar
Dir. of Photography:	Ben Richardson
Music:	Benh Zeitlin, Dan Romer
Editor:	Affonso Gonçalves, Crockett Doob
Producer:	Michael Gottwald, Dan Janvey, Josh Penn
Production:	Journeyman Pictures
Cast:	Quvenzhané Wallis, Dwight Henry, Lowell Landes, Levy Easterly
Contact:	Aerofilms, Entertainment One Films International
Distributor:	Aerofilms

Guests

Ivo Andrle

Distributor

Zuzana Pudilová

Distributor