Animal (2023) is a film about work and it’s about that mid-life crisis feeling of the party leaving you behind. Director Sofia Exarchou focuses on ‘animateurs’ employed by a resort hotel on Crete; the hotel is not high class or exclusive, it looks affordable enough for older Europeans as a holiday destination. The animateurs are hosts and dancers and hype-people. Kalia (Dimitra Vlagkopoulou) is first seen leading guests into karaoke, singing Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On’, and she’s been working here long enough that she is jokingly referred to as “grandma” by her co-workers even though she’s 38.
While for the tourists, it’s about the poolside or the ideal beach nearby, the animateurs live further down the island in unremarkable apartments. Animal is very observational, looking at the group meetings, rehearsals and performances, and the further work some of them do on the weekends at night-clubs. A slip on the dancefloor and a gash on the leg is one incident that starts Kalia’s exhaustion, but it’s also the repetition of casual hook-ups, late night drinking, and putting on a face for the customers. There’s a palpable sense of exhaustion and hitting a wall in both a workplace that also denotes a lifestyle, and the transactional nature of the tourism trade on the island makes it feel like there’s no other choice. Vlagkopoulou is magnetic and conveys a lot without the need of expository dialogue, and Flomaria Papadaki is also good as a new dancer from Poland, Eva, who mirrors Kalia but on the other end of the work journey.
Great cinematography by Monika Lenczewska that pays attention to bodies and physicality, and the film reminded me of both Beau Travail and Zero Fucks Given in different ways. Also features one of my favourite types of scenes: an emotional breakdown during a karaoke performance. Available to stream on SBS On Demand.
VHS Tracking 