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Beasts of the Southern Wild
Hushpuppy, an intrepid six-year-old girl, lives with her father, Wink, in 'the Bathtub', a southern Delta community at the edge of the world. Wink’s tough love prepares her for the unraveling of the universe—for a time when he’s no longer there to protect her. When Wink contracts a mysterious illness, nature flies out of whack—temperatures rise and the ice caps melt, unleashing an army of prehistoric creatures called aurochs. With the waters rising, the aurochs coming, and Wink’s health fading, Hushpuppy goes in search of her lost mother.
2012 · Directed by Benh Zeitlin · 93 min · Drama · Fantasy · Adventure · Screenplay in the scene database · 17 frames
Tagline
I gotta take care of mine.
Plot
Six-year-old Hushpuppy and her ailing, hot-tempered father Wink live in a small community on an island in the Louisiana bayou called the "Bathtub". Although it lies beyond the levee system that helps protect the land to the north from rising sea levels, Wink thinks it is the most beautiful place in the world and looks down on the way people live on the other side of the levee.
In a rustic community schoolhouse, Miss Bathsheba teaches the children of the Bathtub about prehistoric creatures she calls aurochs (portrayed as giant horned boar-like creatures in the film, unlike the true aurochs, a species of wild cattle) that terrorized cavemen and ate their children. She says the cavemen did not bemoan their fate, however, and the students should remember this lesson and learn how to survive, since the fabric of the universe will soon come "unraveled", causing the ice caps to melt and the Bathtub to end up underwater.
At home, Hushpuppy finds Wink has gone missing, so she fends for herself. When he returns, he is wearing a hospital gown and bracelet. They argue, and he tells Hushpuppy to leave him alone. She returns to her house, which is a separate building from the one in which Wink resides, and finds her food burning on the stove. She turns up the heat, which sets her house on fire and draws Wink's attention. A chase ensues between the two, and she ends up getting slapped by Wink. When she retaliates by punching him in the chest, he collapses. At the same moment, there is a rumble of thunder. Hushpuppy thinks she has thrown off the balance of the universe by striking her father and runs to get help. Miss Bathsheba gives her some herbal medicine, but when Hushpuppy gets back home Wink is nowhere to be found.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: Lucy Alibar, Benh Zeitlin
- Cinematography: Ben Richardson
- Edited by: Affonso Gonçalves, Crockett Doob
- Music: Dan Romer, Benh Zeitlin
- Production design: Alex DiGerlando
- Produced by: Michael Gottwald, Dan Janvey, Josh Penn
Cast
- Quvenzhané Wallis as Hushpuppy
- Dwight Henry as Wink
- Levy Easterly as Jean Battiste
- Gina Montana as Miss Bathsheeba
- Lowell Landes as Walrus
- Pamela Harper as Little Jo
- Amber Henry as LZA
- Jonshel Alexander as Joy Strong
- Nicholas Clark as Boy with Bell
- Joseph Brown as Winston
Production
- Country: Canada, United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: Cinereach, Court 13 Pictures, Journeyman Pictures, Seville International
- Budget: $1,800,000
- Box office: $21,107,746
- Themes: explosive, refugee camp, hurricane, flooding, global warming, based on play or musical, bayou, crab, prehistoric creature, storm
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