Beasts of the Southern Wild

Set in a Deep South delta, Zeitlin’s feature debut takes a child’s eye view of poverty, adult apathy and ecological crisis. Hallucinatory fare

Acclaimed at Sundance and Cannes, Benh Zeitlin's feature debut concerns a young black girl living with her troubled, drunken father in the Deep South; poverty, the complexities of the adult world and ecological crisis surround her. Though the lead performances are strong, what distinguishes the film is its hallucinatory tone, which lends the otherwise simple, fable-like story the dimensions of an allegorical fairy-tale.