In Borneo, at the edge of the tropical forest, Kéria is given a baby orangutan. With the forest under greater threat than ever, Kéria, Selaï and the little primate, Oshi, will have to face many obstacles.
Claude Barras’ follow up to the excellent stop motion animated film ‘My Life as a Courgette’ is a film that tackles a more political subject matter whilst retaining the personal elements that made his debut movie such a joy. The movie is ‘Savages’ and it takes place in Borneo, following a young girl (Kéria) who lives with her father on a palm oil plantation, with deforestation and displacement of the indigenous people occurring in the surrounding forestry and jungles. When Kéria and her father rescue a young orangutan, she starts to take more interest in her surroundings and learns that she has heritage with the indigenous Penan community.
Like ‘My Life as a Courgette’, the animation is pretty and old fashioned, with a central character who doesn’t really fit in, or more importantly, hasn’t learnt how to fit in yet. The difference on this occasion is the loftier political themes, touching on colonialism and destruction of the environment, with some tough scenes as befits the material. Despite the intriguing premise mixed with a coming of age narrative and a cute orangutan, I thought ‘Savages’ was merely fine, which was a bit disappointing given the quality of his previous film.
For full disclosure, I unfortunately saw a dubbed version, which is something I always try to avoid where possible for foreign language films, whether live action or animation. I think something is definitely lost with the English language voices in comparison with what I suspect the original French language would have done, so my indifferent feelings on the film will undoubtedly in part be impacted by that. ‘Savages’ is an ambitious follow up to ‘My Life as a Courgette’ from Claude Barras, continuing to mark him out as a unique voice in animation, but it didn’t quite connect with me as much as I’d hoped it would – even with a cute baby orangutan front and centre!
Rating: 3/5
Directed By: Claude Barras
Starring: Babette De Coster, Martin Verset, Laetitia Dosch, Benoît Poelvoorde, Pierre-Isaïe Duc, Michel Vuillermoz and Gaël Faye
'I am happy. You no die. Let's save planets!' Project Hail Mary (2026) 