Homo homini lupus, goes the Latin phrase—man is a wolf to man. And it’s true: the human race often sees its own impulses reflected in the behavior of creatures great and small. Decades before the term “golden retriever boyfriend” entered popular vernacular, Alain Chabat’s cult comedy Didier (1997) saw the resemblance between man’s best friend and a docile, fun-loving human. The titular dog-turned-man is all the more endearing for the contrast between him and his new owner, played by Jean-Pierre Bacri—here as dour and irritable as ever.
In the other direction, interspecies transformations recall ancient curses, turning men and women into voiceless animals who are forced to fend for themselves in the wild. Yorgos Lanthimos’s offbeat comedy The Lobster (2015) is named after the crustacean that its lonely hero is bound to become, should he not find a suitable mate. The animal kingdom also runs in unexpected, romantic parallel to the human realm in Ildikó Enyedi’s eerie On Body and Soul (2017), whose awkward protagonist dreams of love (and deer) in the hopeless place that is a slaughterhouse.
When filmmakers blur the boundary between man and beast, they often step one paw into horror and another into metaphor. In Hanna Bergholm’s creepy satire Hatching (2022), a mysterious crow’s egg produces an unlikely creature; piercing that shell brings to light sinister truths that had been incubating for a long time before. Fauna in this collection have things to tell you. Heed the call of the wild, and reconnect to your animal side.

Homo homini lupus, goes the Latin phrase&#8212;man is a wolf to man. And it&#8217;s true: the human race often sees its own impulses reflected in the behavior of creatures great and small. Decades before the term &#8220;golden retriever boyfriend&#8221; entered popular vernacular, Alain Chabat&#8217;s cult comedy Didier (1997) saw the resemblance between man&#8217;s best friend and a docile, fun-loving human. The titular dog-turned-man is all the more endearing for the contrast between him and his new owner, played by Jean-Pierre Bacri&#8212;here as dour and irritable as ever.
In the other direction, interspecies transformations recall ancient curses, turning men and women into voiceless animals who are forced to fend for themselves in the wild. Yorgos Lanthimos&#8217;s offbeat comedy The Lobster (2015) is named after the crustacean that its lonely hero is bound to become, should he not find a suitable mate. The animal kingdom also runs in unexpected, romantic parallel to the human realm in Ildikó Enyedi&#8217;s eerie On Body and Soul (2017), whose awkward protagonist dreams of love (and deer) in the hopeless place that is a slaughterhouse.
When filmmakers blur the boundary between man and beast, they often step one paw into horror and another into metaphor. In Hanna Bergholm&#8217;s creepy satire Hatching (2022), a mysterious crow&#8217;s egg produces an unlikely creature; piercing that shell brings to light sinister truths that had been incubating for a long time before. Fauna in this collection have things to tell you. Heed the call of the wild, and reconnect to your animal side.

Animal Instinct

ANIMAL INSTINCT

The human race often sees its own impulses reflected in the behavior of creatures great and small. Whether the films in this collection find poetic parallels with the fauna around us, or imagine outright metamorphosis, they urge us to heed the call of the wild, and reconnect to our animal side.

The human race often sees its own impulses reflected in the behavior of creatures great and small. Whether the films in this collection find poetic parallels with the fauna around us, or imagine outright metamorphosis, they urge us to heed the call of the wild, and reconnect to our animal side.