User Score
0 votes
Ancestral follows a giant anteater as it moves through a jungle, its silky coat contrasting with the rough shrubbery. A native to Brazil, and a national symbol for the country, our protagonist carries a small child on its back, eating ants from the ground with its long, tubular snout and picking at the dirt with its claws. The film refuses any particular temporality, as the creature evokes those that have roamed the earth for centuries. In titling the film Ancestral, Roque aligns the animal as a familial forebear—majestic, androgynous, gentle, and sculptural.
Director
Status
Released
Original Language
EN
This Best Short Subject Academy Award winning film begins in the spring of 1940, just before the Nazi occupation of the Benelux countries, and ends immediately after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It chronicles how the people of "Main Street America", the country's military forces, and its industrial base were completely transformed when the decision was made to gear up for war. Original footage is interspersed with contemporary newsreels and stock footage.
