Animale is a 2024 fantasy drama film written and directed by Emma Benestan. It stars Oulaya Amamra as Nejma, a young woman seeking to establish herself in the traditionally male-dominated world of Camargue bull racing. The film incorporates elements of the Western and horror genres.
Animale had its world premiere as the closing film of Critics' Week at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival on 22 May 2024. It was released theatrically in France on 27 November 2024.
Plot In the Camargue, 22-year-old Nejma trains to compete in the traditional course camarguaise, in which participants confront bulls in an arena. She hopes to succeed in a sport dominated by men despite her mother's disapproval.
After a night of drinking with her friends, Nejma loses consciousness in the pastures. She later wakes injured with no memory of what happened. As the season continues, several young men are found dead in attacks blamed on a loose bull. At the same time, Nejma begins to experience unexplained physical and sensory changes.
Cast The principal cast includes:
Oulaya Amamra as Nejma Damien Rebattel as Tony Vivien Rodriguez as Kylian Elies-Morgan Admi-Bensellam as Jordan Pierre Roux as Arthur Claude Chaballier as Léonard Marinette Rafaï as Ouarda Renaud Vinuesa as Renaud
Production and release Animale is Benestan's second feature film after Hard Shell, Soft Shell (2021). Before making the film, she had directed two short documentaries and a radio fiction project dealing with the Camargue and its bull culture.
The film was produced by June Films and Frakas Productions. Ruben Impens served as cinematographer, Clémence Diard as editor and Yan Wagner composed the music.
Following its Cannes premiere, the film screened at several international festivals, including the Sitges Film Festival, the Melbourne International Film Festival and the Stockholm International Film Festival.
Reception Jonathan Romney of Screen Daily praised the film's visual confidence and Amamra's performance, while finding that its later development did not live up to its initial premise. Fabien Lemercier of Cineuropa praised its Camargue setting, physical energy and supernatural elements, but considered its central metaphor overly predictable.
Writing for Le Monde, Maroussia Dubreuil described the film as a feminist horror Western and interpreted Nejma's bodily transformation as an expression of post-traumatic denial. Guillemette Odicino of Télérama characterized it as a fantastical neo-Western centred on a young woman attempting to find a place in the masculine culture of the Camargue. Olivier Delcroix of Le Figaro praised Benestan's depiction of the landscape and Amamra's performance, describing the film as a dark feminist fantasy Western.
Accolades At the 2024 Sitges Film Festival, Animale received the Méliès d'Argent Award for Best Feature Film. It shared the Grand Prize at the 2024 Tübingen–Stuttgart International French-language Film Festival with Denise Fernandes's Hanami.
References
External links
Animale at La Semaine de la Critique