Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: FOREVER MY MATERNAL ANIMAL [Cannes Film Festival - Cannes, France]
“Forever My Maternal Animal” [Un Certain Regard] is about a single family in a state of flux trying to learn why the other makes the decisions and acts the way they do despite best intentions. Set in the urban sprawl likely of San Jose in Costa Rica, the film follows two sisters back and forth. One seems on the spectrum or at least creating a world to help her deal with life though her contradictions keep her from being an empathetic character. She is living in the family house, using weird rituals to both fend off and bring in spirits. She picks up dogs off the street. She has a boyfriend (per se) who breeds dogs and just hangs all day. The whole scenario is a recipe for disaster and yet it is just life. The other sister is more responsible, seems to have her life together but is also searching for something she might not have but doesn’t also understand why some others can’t see her frustration.
Their father and mother broke up a while back but are still involved and in the picture more than most but like any normal human being they have problems and wants and needs of their own. The father has a new girlfriend that is as old as his daughters. They don’t approve but that is what he wants. Their mother is having her book of erotic poems reissued and is going on a book tour. She keeps relating that she is just trying to have her own time since she didn’t have that much while raising her own girls. Everyone has valid points and everyone makes their own mistakes. But in the end they are all still alone dealing with their own issues despite best intents from the others. One specific scene with the mother and the more troubled daughter shows this regression both in how she is coddled but then ignored a moment because nothing will change. Ultimately there is a spiral and while this makes sense, it was obviously written on the wall. Everyone is looking for a maternal figure and yet no one has answers. They only do their best. “A Mouth Of Ashes” was similar in this respect. Whether these characters survive (not necessarily thrive) is besides the point. It is more about that they are still there however finite that is. B-
By Tim Wassberg
