Film Review: “Raw” Reveals The Animal Side of Humanity

*WINNER, FIPRESCI CRITICS PRIZE – CANNES FILM FESTIVAL 2016*
*WINNER, BEST FIRST FEATURE – BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL 2016*
*WINNER, CARNET JOVE JURY AWARD – SITGES FILM FESTIVAL 2016*
*WINNER, BEST DIRECTOR “NEXT WAVE” FEATURE – FANTASTIC FEST 2016*
*OFFICIAL SELECTION – TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2016*
*OFFICIAL SELECTION – SPOTLIGHT – SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2017*
*OFFICIAL SELECTION – RENDEZVOUS FILM FESTIVAL 2017*

Synopsis: Everyone in Justine’s (Garance Marillier)  family is a vet. And a vegetarian. At sixteen she’s a brilliant student starting out at veterinary school where she experiences a decadent, merciless and dangerously seductive world. Desperate to fit in, she strays from her family principles and eats raw meat for the first time. Justine will soon face the terrible and unexpected consequences as her true self begins to emerge.

There I was watching Julia Ducournau’s first feature film, Raw, and marveling at the sick/brilliant mind that concocted a young girl eating her older sister’s finger. As a man shot up in disgust at the image, I wondered what disgusted him? Was it all the blood and chewing? Or was it the relationship this young girl had briefly tossed for her instant gratification of meat? Ducournau’s debut as  screening writer/ director has fascinated the world because it plays with the savagery/divinity of human beings. How can we be animals and beings of love, all at once?

While Raw may be presented, on paper, as a coming of age story, for me, it is the dynamics between Justine and her devious sister Alex (Ella Rumpf) that is the heart the film. If anything, the film is a “Tale Of Two Sister”, one, Justine, who discovers her family’s dark, cannibalistic nature and tries to fight it, while her sister, Alexia completely embraces it. Rumpf is both terrifying and magnetic as Alexia. There is an unpredictability to her that builds throughout the film until it become monstrosity. While people have walked out from the grotesque violence of the film, which includes a grim look into hazing, admittedly, the movie was not as gory as I thought it would be. I think what disgusted people or, at least, made me most uncomfortable, was seeing human beings act like animals. There are certain scenes throughout the film where you will be taken aback by not just the gore, but Justine, Alexia, and fellow students’ relish in their excess and penchant for darkness. Yet, the idea of people mindlessly giving into excess and feeding off of others’ humanity it not far off from the current state of our species.

When you look beyond Raw as a cannibal- horror film, you also can witness how morally and socially relevant it is in casually analyzing humanity’s current addiction to instant, excessive gratification, disloyalty, bullying, and lack of compassion. The way these sisters turn on each other for MEAT! is hard to watch, again for me, because it is crazy to see a family obliterate its history of love and unity over flesh and carnivorous desires. Yet, I could not help but relate it to the current state of humanity in its inability to face its savagery to salvage its divinity. In this sense, Justine becomes an odd heroine/ symbol. Marillier plays Justine with a reserve and quietness that you may not appreciate, initially, when compared to the wilder, seemingly freer Alex, but as the film continues, you begin to wonder who of the sisters is truly free? The one working to be better and stronger as a human being (Justine) or the one giving into her darkness as an animal (Alex)? If humanity comes in a light or dark spectrum, then Raw reveals its perception of liberation is also a spectered choice.

I absolutely adored this film, and as a spiritual person I am not always a fan of horror and gore. It is never easy to see humanity give away its will to be better, but RAW gives a nuanced look into this ultimate, internal battle between our “good self” and our “bad self” or rather our “human side” versus our “animal one”. Moreover, the music by Jim Williams and cinematography of Ruben Impens is brilliant in always giving a sense of glamor and horror to each scene. Even in scenes where students are at school studying, a dark undertone emanates through the background music and color/shots of which Williams and Impens assure elaborate Ducournau’s vision. Raw comes out in theatre on March 10. GO SEE IT!