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“I wanted to make a very simple and a very naïve film on the interactions between human beings and animals.” - filmmaker Denis Côté
At the same time a compelling meditation and a bizarrely humorous piece of visual composition, Côté's (Curling, MIFF 10) latest film, named for the moralising medieval animal books, combines images of animals from a drawing class, a taxidermist's workshop and a Quebec safari park over its high and low seasons. The highly engaging, commentary-free result is strikingly beautiful. And, rather than delivering a ‘message', it invites reflection on our uneasy relationship with animals in captivity, and the nature of control and power.
Premiered at the 2012 Sundance and Berlin film festivals.
"What do we make of organisms who live in the nude? How do we assess the order of things, without judging, when it is destined for the entertaining purposes of a zoo?" - Denis Côté, Cinema Scope
D/S Denis Côté P Sylvain Corbeil WS Figa Films L no dialogue TD DCP/2012