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As chainsaws annihilate trees and animal chatter in the opening of\u00a0<\/span>Savages<\/i>, Claude Barras makes clear the target of his new feature film\u2019s title: the drivers of deforestation in the name of \u200b\u201c<\/span>civilisation\u201d, as the title treatment drops over a\u00a0plantation. While plantation worker Mutang\u2019s additional muttering of \u200b\u201c<\/span>savages\u201d in response to the plantation\u2019s armed guards shooting an orangutan in cold blood feels heavy-handed, it doesn\u2019t take away from the power of the film\u2019s stop-motion craft. Mutang and his young daughter Keria adopt the surviving baby ape, a\u00a0casualty and representative of the casual barbarity of deforestation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The film is set in Borneo, told from the perspective of Keria, who lives with Mutang on the edge of the city, in a\u00a0village between the urban spires and the dense rainforest in which Keria\u2019s extended family live. Her family is part of the Penan people \u2013 hunter-gatherers who are one of the hundreds of indigenous groups on the island \u2013 and Barras follows Keria as she embraces that part of her family and heritage. It\u2019s a\u00a0hard-won journey \u2013 Keria is skeptical of that tradition and downright horrible to her younger cousin Sela\u00ef when he comes to stay with them, even joining in with her friend\u2019s racist taunts. The eventual healing of their familial relationship as it blossoms is the film\u2019s strongest hook, and Barras and screenwriter Catherine Paill\u00e9 tie this together with Keria learning the connection between her family\u2019s freedom and environmental destruction, as the government attempt to drive them off their land, annihilate their hunting spots and tie them up in bureaucracy. As Keria unlearns her selfishness and materialism, we see it manifest in the companies laying claim to land that doesn\u2019t belong to them. \u200b\u201c<\/span>The world does not belong to us\u2026 we borrow it from our children,\u201d as an opening epigraph says, but capitalism isn\u2019t built for the future.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The writers may be obvious in their allegory in places, but that doesn\u2019t mean they don\u2019t trust their young audience with harsher material, and not just in the bursts of violence. <\/span>Savages<\/span><\/i> talks frankly about \u200b\u201c<\/span>hope dying slowly\u201d in the forest as the Penan fight the encroaching government off their land but expect the worst anyway. Between the cute gags, there\u2019s also an interest in observation: not in an anthropological sense towards the Penan, but in a\u00a0contentedness with noticing the patterns of the natural world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The handmade qualities of this world amplify the sense of devastation. The characters, whose designs resemble Barras\u2019s work on\u00a0<\/span>My Life as a\u00a0Courgette<\/i>, each have distinct personality in their design as well as a\u00a0visible human touch on their surface which creates a\u00a0level of immersion. Adding to this is the dense foliage of <\/span>Savages\u2019<\/span><\/i> tactile forest sets, as well as its interest in animated natural life, the sounds of which are often prioritised over a\u00a0musical score. It makes the barrenness of quarries and logging sites feel downright apocalyptic: the notes for the film highlight the Penan concept of <\/span>Tana Pengurip<\/span><\/i> \u2013 the living forest \u2013 not just as the home and livelihood of the Penan, but as the carrier of their stories.<\/span><\/p>\n Barras builds the film not just so that annihilation feels tangible, but also so that sense of history and spirituality can be felt as well as told: the natural lighting of the daylight hours gives way to an ethereal glow in the forest at night as Keria encounters a\u00a0panther that might also carry her mother\u2019s spirit.\u00a0The fantastical, meticulous nature of Barras\u2019 animation illustrates by contrast the scourge of AI<\/span>: lifeless, eerily smooth digital simulacrum which is actually hastening environmental destruction rather than encouraging its protection.<\/span><\/p>\n Perhaps the most fantastical moment is saved for last, as <\/span>Savages<\/span><\/i> sees capitalist and governmental power acquiescing to the will of the people, particularly to the passion and ingenuity of youth. But it\u2019s also fitting: why preach cynicism and the belief that stepping outside doesn\u2019t work to younger audiences? It\u2019s hard to fault Barras for making a\u00a0film which is open-eyed about the destruction of the natural world, but also quietly insistent that it \u2013 and we \u2013 can be\u00a0saved.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nGet more Little White\u00a0Lies<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n