ANIMALIA (2023) by Sofia Alaoui

Why we picked it

“Director Sofia Alaoui sets up Animalia as an intimate dissection of the foibles and hypocrisies of Morocco’s moneyed classes. But Amine Bouhafa’s fine score, all ominous cello and somber bass, suggests that something more profound and destabilizing than the class divide is lying in wait, just beyond the hazy horizon.” – Jessica Kiang, Variety “It is so refreshing to see a filmmaker expressing their deepest inner thoughts with such bravery and sensitivity… Alaoui’s film seamlessly blends the real with the surreal, the natural with the supernatural, the material with the spiritual, and the end result is nothing short of transcendental.” – Wael Khairy, RogerEbert.com “When the real world is changing in ways which most of us were not prepared for, often to devastating effect, this sort of filmmaking is urgently needed. It doesn’t offer convenient answers but encourages the process of questioning, and of recognising the necessity of change. Most importantly, it looks beyond the fear that