Miscellaneous Filmmaker Claude Barras has a political message with "Sauvages"
The Valais animation filmmaker Claude Barras has been nominated for a European Film Award in the top category of Best Film with "Sauvages". In an interview with the Keystone-SDA news agency, he explains the position he takes with the film.
06.12.2024, 10:00
SDA
"Sauvages" tells the story of the indigenous Kéria, who lives with her father in Borneo. Against the backdrop of the conflict between palm oil plantation owners and the indigenous community, a mother orangutan is shot dead on the edge of the jungle. Kéria and her father take in her baby. The film questions their own roots - and, above all, who the savages ultimately are.
Five weeks on Borneo
Claude Barras himself spent five weeks on Borneo in 2018. "I visited a reserve for orangutans and a center for orphaned orangutan babies." There he learned about natural adoptions in the wild. According to this, orangutan mothers take in other people's orphaned babies. "I recorded this in "Sauvages"," says Barras. He also spent some time with a traditional family in the forest - in other words, he lived like Kéria.
Barras had already started working on "Sauvages" two years earlier. The trigger was an article that predicted the extinction of wild orangutans by 2035. I also "did a lot of research on the Penan community".
With his film, Barras wants to "convey a feeling for nature" and "immerse the viewer in the forest in an emotional way with the story and the sound". The sounds also convey the sounds of nature, of animals or flowing water - but also the noise of bulldozers.
In Barras' opinion, the film also has a political message: he sees the food industry and neoliberalism as the biggest challenges to forest conservation. "Let's take the example of palm oil. I want to sensitize children to the problem. They should understand that by eating Nutella or buying plastic from the other side of the world, they are supporting criminals," he says.
A "European" filmmaker
"Sauvages" was already shown at the Cannes Film Festival in May and last August on the Piazza Grande at the Locarno Film Festival. There it was honored with the Locarno Kids Award.
And now the nomination for the European Film Award: "This nomination is important to me", says Barras, "because I see myself as a European filmmaker". His films are the result of co-productions from two or three countries, "just to be able to finance the budget of a stop-motion animation film". He is particularly pleased that the award ceremony is being held in Switzerland this year.
Incidentally, "Sauvages" will be released in Swiss-German cinemas on February 6. And whether it will win a European Film Award will be revealed on Saturday evening at the Lucerne Culture and Convention Center.
