Showing @ Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle until Tue 27 Nov

Benh Zeitlin / USA / 2012 / 93 min

The temptation to blame nature for our shifting climate patterns is admittedly an idle response to environmental change, but it also deflects attention away from the practical steps we can take to protect our urbanised infrastructures. Hurricane Katrina became the centre of this discussion, at first a truly catastrophic natural disaster, but afterwards a catalyst for government criticism following the controversy of the New Orleans levee failures.

Benh Zeitlin’s debut feature is an immaculately thoughtful, cinematically gorgeous response to Katrina, set in anonymous Deep South bayou terrain – locally nicknamed The Bathtub. Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis) lives as a wild child, between shacks and shelters in the forested wetlands, learning to survive through hand-fishing and hunting as her lion-hearted father (Dwight Henry) struggles with a terminal plasmatic illness. When Katrina strikes, much of the area is left destroyed and flooded, as local authorities come to “help” by taking people to nearby refuges.

There have been many reactions to Katrina in film, not least powerful documentaries such as When the Levees Broke (2006) and Trouble the Water (2008). But these films are not about weather, but about American government and its attitude towards people. The oblique decision to sever ties with places like Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi have left citizens isolated, a feeling shared in Zeitlin’s film here. His characters are primarily concerned with maintaining their way of life, revolted by suggestions of abandoning their home to embrace consumer culture and bourgeois moral duty; the director is able to reinforce this by imbuing Beasts with themes of cosmic harmony, flood narrative purification and organic beauty. The same is true of the cinematography: rich with colour, wildlife and meditative panning shots – all supported by a rousing soundtrack.

Naturally, the film’s title is an open invitation to ask who the real beasts are and how they are viewed. Has the US created a survivalist condition in parts of the Deep South by restricting economic growth? Hushpuppy learns to live with nature by obeying its power and utility rather than trying to exploit it, and it’s this equilibrium with the world which provides peace – not the acquisition of money. Beasts of the Southern Wild is many things: a majestic portrait of climate jeopardy, a magical journey of discovery and consequence, but perhaps most importantly, a detailed insight into how America avoids state-specific governance.

Listings:

November 2012
Fri 23
  • 11:15 (R)
Sat 24
  • 10:40 (E)
Sun 25
  • 16:10 (E)
Tue 27
  • 10:50 (R)