Leave it to the French to blow up a genre and redefine it whether it’s Luc Besson with the female action sphere with La Femme Nikita or Jean-Pierre Jeunet with the romantic comedy and Amelie. Meet filmmaker Julia Ducournau whose Raw gobbles up the horror genre and digests into something mindblowing.
“I don’t consider my movie a horror movie,” asserts Ducournau about her genre-bending, “I wanted to make people uneasy, that’s for sure.”
Talk about a high concept: A young vegetarian, who is studying to be a veterinarian, tries meat for the first time — and things spiral out of control to the point that she becomes a cannibal.
But that doesn’t necessarily make our female protagonist, a monster. And while the word cannibal brings up images of obscure, hidden indigenous tribes in the world, or, gulp, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, Docourneau thinks that it’s not unusual for humans to desire the flesh in a gastro-kind of way, in fact don’t be surprised to see it as the norm in the near future (“I think we’re really close” says the filmmaker).
“Cannibals, we label them as being inhuman. We say they’re monsters, but the problem is that they’re not vampires and they’re not werewolves. They’re people,” asserts Ducournau, “People are quick to put these people outside of humanity.”
Raw made its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival back in May and has been traveling the North America festival circuit with stops at Toronto, Fantastic Fest and now Sundance before its March 10 release by Focus World.
Actors, directors, filmmakers and special guests visiting the Deadline Studio at Sundance 2017 enjoyed sweet and savory treats, custom cocktails and more at Applegate’s REEL FOOD CAFE. Find out more about Applegate and their mission to change the meat we eat at www.applegate.com.
