L'animale (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Katharina Mückstein
	Actors: Sophie Stockinger, Kathrin Resetarits, Dominik Warta
	Country: A
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 09.12.2018, ArteKino Festival, Austrian German with English subtitle
Synopsis: Riding on their tuned-up bikes, Mati (Stockinger) and her posse of male friends intimidate their neighborhood and harass the girls. In their village, they rule. But when her closest pal Sebastian falls in love with Mati and her enemy Carla unexpectedly turns into a friend, Mati is in danger of losing her standing among her male friends. Her father (Warta) and her mother (Resetarits).
Review: JoRafCinema participates this year to the ArteKino Festival as we did in 2016. The first movie watched from the selection is L'animale. The Festival is accessible on the following link.  The plot starts almost classical now after a last decade full of coming-of-age movies about the homosexual coming out. And here the family of Mati is full of surprises. It is not exactly coming out but rather discovery and acceptance of its own sexuality, discovery that they don't need to be afraid of their secret side. Mati discovering slowly that she actually does not like the bad boys she's hanging with and prefers the girl from the supermarket and that she shouldn't be afraid of it. Her father discovering that he feels more attracted by men and shouldn't be afraid of it, even if he is. Her mother discovering that she is no more jealous if she cheats on him with other men. The shots are alternating between Mati's story and her father's. Her mother's is more like a secondary story of the father's. And this gives quite a good rythm between the conflictual and often agressive Mati and the introvert and quiet father. Both are acting with authenticity. The last words during the credits are "Zeifle aber hab keine Angst. / Brenne. Und ergib dich nicht." The music by Fleischmann can be found here. And this fits to the movie without being a major character. The song L'animale, by Franco Battiato is sung by all of them when they realise what is their situation, that they are no more afraid of it and that they have to live with it. This scene is impressively good as it gives a common plot to the different stories, a common sense.
Rating: 6 /10