In “Sauvages”, an animated film in theaters on Wednesday, director Claude Barras takes the viewer into the forest of Borneo with two children and an orphaned orangutan, in order to raise awareness of the environmental issue of deforestation.
“It’s an animated film aimed at families but it’s also very anchored in reality. Relaying the fight of people who are trying to stop deforestation in Southeast Asia is important to me,” explained the Swiss to AFP in May, during the Cannes Film Festival.
“People who are struggling, I think we need to support them and my way of fighting is to take an interest in all these issues,” continued the director. And to remind: “As it is linked to palm oil and we consume a lot of it in the West, it directly concerns us too.”
Among these “people who struggle” are representatives of the Penan people, who have worked for 30 years to preserve the Borneo rainforest and their nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
Komeok Joe, also present in Cannes to present the film, is one of them.
“We don’t want our children to become orphans where they live. That’s why I go around the world to talk about our problems,” explained the activist.
“This film really talks about our history and the problems of the Penan,” he assured. “I am Penan and I swear that all this is true. If you don’t believe it, come. I will show you the forest, the bulldozers, the dirty rivers, the fleeing animals, the diseases…”
The film team also offers, on a website, concrete actions with NGOs such as Greenpeace France (petition against deforestation), Foodwatch (questioning palm oil producers) or the Bruno Manser Fund (donation to expand the protected reserves).
Claude Barras, 51, stood out at Cannes in 2016 with his first feature film scripted by Céline Sciamma, “My Life as a Zucchini”, the nickname of a boy raised by his alcoholic mother who finds himself in a foster home after her death. of it. His new life is transformed into an initiatory journey towards sharing and empathy.
For the city dweller Kéria, heroine of the dreamlike “Sauvages”, in theaters before the school holidays, the discovery of the tropical forest, with her cousin and the baby orangutan that she adopted, will also turn into the discovery of his origins and his beliefs.
“What I like to do is address children with films that are funny, accessible, but about serious and current themes with a realistic price,” summarizes the director.
