The Truth is in the Woods
The Truth is in the Woods
Angry and Anonymous
February 24, 2022
In a Strange Land
Anonymous Animals (2020)
A generation ago I was ridiculed by more than one dear friend for championing a fantastical science fiction novel, Lives of the Monster Dogs. Sadly, I remember my frustration at people—smart, good people—refusing to give serious consideration to a book about a pack of intelligent dogs who can talk and are bred to be ruthless soldiers (yeah, it’s crazy) and live a life of luxury and tragedy in New York City than I do about the actual book itself.
And, come to think of it, where the hell is my copy of that book? I save everything. I probably lent it to one of the naysayers who likely used it for a doorstop or a coaster.
Damn, I loved that book.
I don’t know if Baptiste Roeveure has read Kirstin Bakis’ book but it would not surprise me if he did and was inspired by it, or, more likely, George Orwell’s Animal Farm, when he wrote and produced Anonymous Animals. Anonymous Animals, though, is not a satire. I don’t think. But Roeveure’s film is social commentary. And it is absolutely about monsters.
And it’s without words. It’s a dog barking. It’s an animal chewing. The film’s dialogue is the guttural howl of the feral and the merciless, a world in which animals rule and people sprint in desperation, scurry in fear, or cower in surrender.
A viewer can be forgiven for not wanting any part of such a movie. A dog cracking a whip. A stag holding a shotgun. The rational world twisted inside out to reveal a miserable land of unsettling savagery.
How would the animals treat us if they were in charge? It’s estimated that 70 billion land animals are killed for food every year. How many are killed for fun? How many are rounded up, tormented, ridiculed, their cries of pain echoing over a darkened land surrounding a farmhouse in a hellish nightmare?
They don’t have names, these creatures that die under our foot. They are anonymous creations of God, felled by the damned. --TK
Friday, February 25, 2022