\n\tCalvin Demba, the British actor, writer and director best known on screen for the Netflix hit \u201cSupacell,\u201d has lined up an impressive cast list for his second short film behind the camera, \u201cThe Animals.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tGeorge MacKay<\/a> (\u201cRose of Nevada,\u201d \u201cSense and Sensibility\u201d) stars alongside Louisa Harland (\u201cRenegade Nell,\u201d \u201cDerry Girls\u201d), Nathalie Emmanuel<\/a> (\u201cGame of Thrones,\u201d \u201cMegalopolis\u201d) and Eric Kofi Abrefa (\u201cSupacell,\u201d BMF\u201d) in the project, written and directed by Demba and produced by Tuli Litvak (\u201cBeauty Sleep,\u201d \u201cFairview Park\u201d).<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe Animals\u201d centers on Miles (MacKay) as he struggles with growing feelings of emasculation and emotional impotency within his relationship with Remona (Harland). An opportunity to reclaim his sense of self arises from another man\u2019s act of heroism during a violent home invasion \u2014 but as events spiral out of control, he\u2019s forced to confront the destructive masculine ideals driving him.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI wanted to make a film that takes a satirical look at gender stereotypes and the role they play in relationships,\u201d said Demba, who made his directorial debut with 2022\u2019s BFI Network short \u201cBabyDolls.\u201d \u201c\u2018The Animals\u2019 examines masculinity and how it can become performative. It pokes fun at modern relationships and the ways we unconsciously perform gender roles within them, exploring the gap between who we are and who we feel we should be. Tonally, the film is darkly comic, but the violence never feels slapstick. It needed to feel grounded in reality because that threat of violence mirrors the conversations we\u2019re having about masculinity itself.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAdded MacKay: \u201cWhat drew me to the project was the script and the opportunity to work with Calvin. I\u2019m a huge fan of his previous work and wanted to be part of whatever he made next. Working with Cal, and his mix of detail and freedom, was my favourite part of the process. His generosity as a writer and director, and his willingness to share that process, was golden.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe Animals,\u201d which was shot earlier this year, was filmed on 16mm by Ebba Hult (whose work has screened at Cannes, Telluride, and LFF), edited by Mdhamiri \u00c1 Nkemi (\u201cThe Last Tree,\u201d \u201cBlue Story\u201d), and graded by Canadian colourist Jodie Davison (\u201cThe Revenant,\u201d \u201cThe Eternal Daughter\u201d). It is executive produced by BAFTA-winners Mouktar Mohammed (\u201cSupacell\u201d) and Sheila Nortley (\u201cSupacell,\u201d \u201cStay Close\u201d), Demba and Harland.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThis film was a total joy to make because we had such a clever script and such an incredible team, and I loved getting to work alongside George who I have long admired,\u201d said Harland. \u201cThe script is what drew me to this role, but I really believe in Calvin as a filmmaker. His stories are rooted in poetry, and I hope to continue working with him on every project he does, whether that\u2019s in front of or behind the camera.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe Animals\u201d will begin its festival circuit at a BAFTA and Oscar qualifying major festival, to be announced soon. Demba is currently in early development with the BFI to turn the short into a feature film. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Calvin Demba, the British actor, writer and director best known on screen for the Netflix hit \u201cSupacell,\u201d has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,82980,242882,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-734627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-george-mackay","tag-nathalie-emmanuel","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=734627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}