A mother’s death set the stage for “My Life as a Zucchini,” the heartsore 2016 Swiss stop-motion that landed director Claude Barras an Oscar nomination for best animated feature. Now, the passing of a different maternal figure at the hands of unscrupulous men ignites the filmmaker’s eco-conscious, anti-colonial follow-up “Savages.” When a female orangutan is killed by loggers on the Indonesian island of Borneo, 11-year-old Kéria (Babette De Coster) and her father Mutang (Benoît Poelvoorde) adopt her adorable offspring and name it Oshi. Kéria becomes immediately protective of the young ape.
“Savages” deems those willing to enact such violence against other living creatures as uncivilized brutes, destroying the Earth for money while Indigenous peoples live in accordance with age-old principles of coexistence with nature. A musical number in Disney’s “Pocahontas” (coincidentally, and appropriately, also titled “Savages”) contrasted the same notions. Yet, even if departing from a rather obvious, if timely, environmentalist premise, Barras and co-screenwriter Catherine Paillé — with Nancy Huston and Morgan Navarro credited as collaborators in the film’s development — mold a potently stirring and hopefully galvanizing cry against not only deforestation, but all manner of transgressions that jeopardize our collective future on this planet.
The daughter of a late activist mother from the Penan Indigenous people, Kéria has been raised in the nearby village, where there are cell phones and other markers of what Westerns consider progress. But when her cousin Selaï (Martin Verset), who grew up in the forest speaking a native tongue and learning about the inextricable relationship between humans and the land, comes to visit, an opportunity presents itself for Kéria to reconnect with her unexplored identity. The duo winds up lost in the lush forest with Oshi, allowing Selaï to teach Kéria about Tepun, a powerful shapeshifting entity central spiritual practice, and to introduce her to their other family members. “Savages” features substantial passages where the Penan language is spoken by Kéria’s extended clan without subtitles (often by voice performers from Borneo), a sound decision that at least momentarily decenters the Western perspective.
That “Zucchini” was written by French auteur Celine Sciamma (“Portrait of a Lady on Fire”) explained in part why there was an emotional richness to its orphaned characters and their interpersonal afflictions. That’s not to say such depth is absent in “Savages”; on the contrary, the fact that its presence endures points to Barras’ ability for eliciting such gravitas from his big-eyed clay figures. As in “Zucchini,” the children in “Savages” express challenging feelings, even at times cruelty toward each other — Kéria’s initial treatment of Selaï is harsh but believable — as they grapple with the realities of the world, namely the nearly insurmountable power of corporations. In turn, the adult characters lack all the answers, and often even the courage to pursue them, which makes for an emotionally wounding adventure.
The tactile aesthetic of “Savages” truly comes across as handcrafted, even more so than similarly conceived projects like the recent, more polished “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.” The environments in Barras’ latest, however, seem more intricate than in “Zucchini,” this time populated with varied vegetation, waterfalls, rock formations and multiple animal characters that accompany the kids on their journey. Still, looking at the figures or the production design up close, one can recognize this world was painstakingly built piece by piece with attention to every minuscule onscreen detail. And yet, Barras’ stylization feels organically childlike, almost as if it were a moving playset.
As Kéria learns the truth about her mother’s passing and the profound reasons for her disconnection with her roots, “Savages” cements the broader historical context that capitalistic disregard for nature is intertwined with the evils of colonization and the displacement and mistreatment of Indigenous peoples. Opting for an optimistic resolution entrusting his cautious hope to younger generations, Barras suggests that the often-demonized technology of today, as well as social media, could in fact have a positive use as communities around the globe band together to fend off the unscrupulous forces that have pushed us to the brink of environmental collapse. That’s a spirited political statement for a production aimed primarily at a youth audience, considering that it also folds in juvenile humor and adorable creatures. The message of “Savages” is far from new, but never has it been more prescient.
