Animal Farce - Movie

Directed / written by: Nader Dowlatshahi

Reviewed by: Martin Dansky

This is cinematic parody of the book Animal Farm (George Orwell).
The characters of this movie are masked and represent the animals on a farm about to get rid of their human overlord. A pig will soon rise to power and dupe the creatures into working harder for the benefit of their farm. The inspiration for that setting came from Orwell’s story only the difference is that this is a farce and a pretty good one on different levels unlike the original, which was mostly, meant as political satire.

One can be pleased with the original thought behind the production of the film and the humanness of the characters whose story is related to the fiber behind the original tale with the addition that twisted relationships unravel before your eyes as the animals pair up to marry at the end. It is as if they finally find completion doing that and the marriage ceremony adapted to the mixed marriages does makes the viewer question the seriousness of our institutions; it is also a humorous way to see how relationships develop. Many times they are nonsensical especially when a sheep and pig are mated!

The sheep has homosexual tendencies and wants to make it with the horse that is interested in the chicken and so he does his best to distract his attention. Here is a comical element that was worth exploring. Somehow the sheep and horse end up making out in the bushes when the latter is supposed to be a straight animal. The horse is being offered the sheep’s milk, which is absurd for the character to do. How are the animals somehow involved in their own pleasures instead of the issue at hand? They have just overthrown the empty-headed human. How could they possibly be so keen on crossing wires like this? Well again through subtle dialogue the writer, Nader Dowlatshahi, has been able to reveal the nonsense in their lack of focus, they should be taking matters more seriously instead of being so sexually distracted.

This farce tells the viewer that just as different animals end up in couple situations beyond our wildest dreams, so life is not to be taken seriously whenever there is a power struggle. New leadership or someone tries to push their political agenda on you and you know it’s impossible to fulfill. The idea of “making a metro that will go to the Milky Way and beyond” is farcical to say the least. Pigmaster has his agenda that gets his followers to fall into step during the day but if you pay attention very little is going to be done with toy dirt trucks and shovels!

All the while the movement of the camera suggests a freehand motion and it goes well with the randomness of nonhumans who walk differently from us. The color and choice of costumes catches the viewer’s attention, as he is curious to see what kind of character can lie underneath, especially the pig and animal ones who are stereotypical of certain people; having a weakness for anything representing humanity even though they would fight against it.

The animals sat at the beginning of the story to see an older pig matriarch about to die; only before she does, she wants to give them the combination to a safe of money that the human owner kept. It is hilarious to see that she dies just on the second number and the animals can’t quite piece the right combination to get the safe open later on in the film. Should it surprise you that they are unable to concentrate on how to open a lock? They would then be quite incapable of doing anything human but they do exemplify man’s greed and the need to have exactly what was the cause of their unrest, accumulated money that was stored away.

Even the Pig master shows his human gluttony by playing poker with his empty headed friend who he just had kicked off the farm. Firstly it shows that he was in collusion with his human sidekick and then since he is betting, he has the same greedy vice as his the expelled human! One finds it humorous too that the pig would exact a ransom from the former landowner by getting some farm products from the very animals he is trying to employ for his ambitious metro project!

The empty headed character certainly does not let the human down and neither dies tit face who was the owner’s messenger in stealing animal produce. Their masks are certainly delightful as well as their body movements. Empty head’s bulging eyes look ridiculous each time he tries to run after another piece of money until he gets caught with his head in a bin and can’t get out! How could anyone fall victim to his or her own greed so easily? The author made the serious associations of the film humorous through these
elements.

Titface walks about oddly as if he could never rob the animals of their produce and breaks an egg while he is at it! His mask shows a tit on either side, which soon becomes an object of being squeezed when he gets caught! He is definitely a useful comical character to this satirical version of Animal Farm.

The incorporation of other elements adds to the fanciful tale. A scarecrow, which is supposed to keep, crow’s away witnesses Pigmaster take away a load of money for himself. Again to lighten the seriousness of the theft, the scarecrow has a crow friend who also sees the theft. Genius donkey is unhappy with his new freedom and finds his way to an end by lying on some train tracks. One assumes that he takes his life.





Bull also takes to the streets in search for the sheep that disappears. He tries out his strength in a ridiculous show of machismo by trying to lift up a truck along the way to find his animal friend. He loses sight of golden horse and floozy hen (chicken) who are also eagerly seeking out sheep and go through the oddest of circumstances enough to show that there is an additional element the author wants to reveal while they wander to the alter. These animals are very much alienated from the rest of the world! Immigrants are also represented in a scene after they meet the first guard in the checkpoint as if they are in the customs office. When they try to get on the bus there is a conflict with the bus driver creating the first confrontation between humans and animals in the human territory. It is that which you see through their wandering onto to bus only to called ‘animals’ of which they are! Santa Claus is supposed to represent the status quo in the movie. Their unproductive meeting with him also attests to their alienation and by extension to the alienation of anybody who is foreign or to foreigners and immigrants. Mr. Bully (cow) gets lonely in the human land searching for his lost identity…

The movie with its sassy closing musical score is a delightful twist of the Animal Farm which suggested that the pigs rise to power only to act the same way as humans did, if not worse through greed and selfish projects. The characters all have a distinctive personality and human charm and the wedding at the end makes for a delightful twist to the drama of what people might have expected but it does show that changes in life, trying to adapt to a life in a new world, can be as bizarre as having animals overtake the keep of a farm they were once familiar with.

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Actors:

Brian Lorne Maged - As: Pigmaster
Barbara Lipson Halfner - As: Floozy Hen
Kristina Varkevicious- As: Piggy miggy- & Lazy Scarecrow
Martin Dansky - As: Empty headed Human & TV reporter
John Harvey - As: Genius Donkey
Monica Kim - As: Mr. Bully
Mark Spires - As: Lion king Judge
Leo Cipolla - As: Sissy Sheep
Nader Dowlatshahi: Golden Horse

Edited By: Brad Kine
Produced By: Behzad Dowlatshahi - 2009
Genre: Comedy