Christian Mongiu’s Wild Animals: Fear of Difference

Wild Animals confronts the viewer with a problem of xenophobia: when alien children arrive in a small village in Romania, the inhabitants end up in an uncontrollable spiral of prejudice and hatred.

to Sophia Grenade posted on July 11, 2023

After winning the Best Director award at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival BaccalaureateCristian Mongiu returns to cinema with a film that confronts the viewer with reality racism.

Christian Mongiu’s Wild Animals: The Plot

Matthias (Marin Gregor) works in Germany, but is forced to return to his family in the small village of Rimitia, Romania, after a violent argument with his boss. Here he discovers that his son, Rudy (Mark Plinysi), has stopped speaking since he encountered something that frightened him in the woods. Matías wants to be close to him, but at the same time the relationship with his wife Ana (Macrina Barladino) seems irreparably flawed.

Thus the man seeks comfort in the arms of his lover, Sheila (Judith State), head of the bakery company in Remitia. It will be his decision to hire foreign boys to wreak havoc in the small town.

Fear of the stranger

main topic for wild animals It’s just that comparison with a foreigner. The fear of the different is the protagonist and decreases in its various forms. In fact, the director immediately makes it clear how the Romanian people are the primary target Racist commentsBut parallel to this, xenophobia is also deeply rooted in itself.

When three boys from Sri Lanka arrive in the small village of Remitia, the situation deteriorates, resulting in a… The height of hate, fear and violence. The deep meaning of the film can be summed up in the adage “the whole world is a country”. Wild animals are precisely humans, which he lurks in bestiality Those associated with racism and those who act ferociously in front of what they do not know.

An intense representation of the world

Mungiu opposes fear of difference to acceptance and welcome, in a big way metaphor Which is seen in the village of Al-Rumaita as a representation of all humanity. It also happens in Twin Peaks By David Lynch, the isolated city becomes it The symbolic representation of a universal whole: what is happening in the small reality, separated from the rest, is comparable to what is happening in the world in general. Even then, the forest The surroundings of the populated center are a source of anxiety and fear because It hides the mysterious and unexplored – just as it was represented in the village by M.

Nate Shyamalan. This disturbing element is introduced by Mungiu right from the first scene, where Matthias’ son gets scared while roaming in the woods, symbolicUnknown and incomprehensible fears.

A film about prejudices and contradictions

Christian Mongiu builds a world full of Contradictions and paradoxes. reality immersed in one Moral confusion From which no one really comes out clean. The rampant hatred of the foreigner, the mutual intolerance of the other’s differences, the religion that gives voice to prejudices, the forces of order that avoid in any way intervening in the face of violence, employers who exploit their employees… All this culminates in perhaps the most important scene in wild animalsor thattown meeting.

Here the contradiction reaches its climax and is magnified even at the level of the staging itself: it is too long sequence plan With a stationary chamber showing the gradual deterioration of the conflict within the community. Mungiu, Palme d’Or at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival in the feature film 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 daysmanaged to bring a movie with a simple but very complex plot to the big screen.