Institute History
Description
Heavily pregnant Itto looks forward to a day of peace and quiet when she gets her affluent household mostly to herself after her husband, Amine, goes away on business. She’s quickly lost sight of her modest origins and has adapted to her new family’s detached opulence. But when a mysterious state of emergency is declared nationwide, Itto struggles to find help; meanwhile, increasingly ominous events and strange weather phenomena suggest a supernatural presence is nearing. While frantically searching for a way back to Amine, Itto unexpectedly finds emancipation and the possibility of solace in a new world order.
Short Film Grand Jury Prize winner Sofia Alaoui (So What If the Goats Die, 2020) returns to the Sundance Film Festival with her astonishing feature debut, birthing an imaginative sci-fi that explores the unsettling circumstances of a world that no longer seems recognizable. With a hypnotic visual sensibility, Animalia explores the tension between faith and purpose, eroding myths and challenging class prejudice to expose the ways we are all more connected than we know.