WHEN ANIMALS DREAM
A coming- of- rage story
released 16 May 2014 | 15 | DVD
Director Jonas Alexander Arnby Cast Sonia Suhl, Lars Mikkelsen, Sonja Richter, Jakob Oftebro
Weirdly, some people are still viscerally disgusted by female body hair. But not the makers of this Danish drama, who see no shame in binning the Ladyshave..
Newcomer Sonia Suhl plays Marie, a teenage fish- gutter who’s alarmed to discover that she’s developing the same mysterious syndrome that affects her mute mother. Symptoms include the growth of thick back hair and a tendency to violent outbursts... Put two and two together yet?
This is no standard werewolf film. The word is never spoken, the Moon appears to have no influence, and even in the final stages of her transformation Marie just looks like she’s overdone the hormone tablets. Neither is it interested in gore – the camera generally shies away whenever the throat- ripping commences.
Instead, this is an understated, close- mouthed meditation on what happens when a young woman chooses to push back against the social pressures bearing down on her, told in a social- realist style, with many moments of contemplative stillness. Bullied by her coworkers ( who at one point stage a fishy mock rape), Marie refuses to be ashamed of her difference ( or, indeed, of her desires) and eventually – like a hairy Ms 45 – wreaks a bloody revenge. Though it lacks the more memorable characters of Let The Right One In, it shares a similar ambience, so it may well appeal to fans of that film – and of female empowerment.
Extras Just a trailer. Ian Berriman
This is no standard werewolf film
The director “tested” his lead by getting her to scream, naked, covered in fake blood. She ended up hyperventilating.