Remember learning in school about humans’ transition from a hunting and gathering society to farming? Well, it’s farmers versus hunters in the dark comedy-drama Too Many Beasts (L’Espèce Explosive), the first feature from director Sarah Arnold, which she wrote with Jérémie Dubois, Olivier Seror, Romain Winkler and Mehdi Ben Attia.
Premiering in the Directors’ Fortnight (Quinzaine des Cinéastes) lineup, the sidebar of the Cannes Film Festival, the movie stars Alexis Manenti (Les Misérables, Les Indesirables) as the sharp-minded but heartbroken Fulda, Ella Rumpf (Couture, Grave, Freud, Succession) as Stéphane, a psychologist with her own issues, and Vincent Dedienne (A Good Man).
What is the nature of this beast, you ask? “In the French countryside, wild boars ravaging crops spark an open war between farmers and members of a gentlemen’s hunting club, who feed the game between hunts,” reads a synopsis. “Brun, a bankrupt farmer, struggles to keep his farm afloat. When the club’s president pushes him to his limits, Brun shoots him and disappears.”
But this place is, pretty much, a zoo, so the drama doesn’t stop there. “A year later, Fulda, a volatile cop, and Stéphane, a psychologist barely holding it together, start digging,” continues the plot summary. “What they uncover is bigger than anything they could have imagined. And so is what emerges between them.”
Arnold has made a splash with her short films, including Leçon de ténèbres, which won the jury award at the Turin Film Festival, Totems, which won the Locarno Film Festival’s Pardino d’Oro, and Store Policy. Noé Bach is the cinematographer on Too Many Beasts, while Isabelle Manquillet is the editor. Playtime is handling sales.
About her rebellious characters, Arnold says in a director’s note that they come from her parents. “My mother moved in political circles around Toni Negri in Italy in the 1970s, my father was a Swiss sailor who dreamed of sailing around the world, and my stepfather was a schoolteacher who played punk rock. They all resisted in their own way,” she explains. “I have always found it difficult to separate cinema from politics, and the question that drives me is: how do you obey when you are asked to accept injustice? The characters in my short films and in my first feature resist, and if I feel sympathy for them, it’s because they all believe that, even when the odds are stacked against you, the fight is worth having.”
THR can now unleash the beast… well, sort of. THR can premiere an exclusive clip from Too Many Beasts ahead of the film’s May 17 world premiere. We won’t spoil too much, but you can expect to meet Fulda and a fellow cop, with Fulda – no, not quite talking turkey. Well, you have to see for yourself! Enjoy the exclusive clip from Too Many Beasts!
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