- A young boy is spotted in the woods of Saint-Sernin-sur-Rance, France. Three years later, three hunters catch sight of the child, capturing him when he attempts to escape by scuttling up a tree. While in the care of a widow living in a town nearby, the boy escapes to his forested home again, seen only in glimpses between trees until he emerges from the woodlands on his own in 1800. This human is anonymous — without a birth date, without a family, and prone to running joyfully in the nude, unfazed by freezing temperatures or the frosty, rough ground of twigs and rocks. This is the true story of Victor of Averyon (as he was named by a physician who examined his fascinating case) and it is far from the only story — whether myth or truth — of feral humans raised by the unforgiving wilderness.
In the visually haunting, Oscar®-nominated film “Feral,” animator Daniel Sousa seeks to explore the complex concept of nature versus nurture. What kind of being can a human grow into if they’re raised completely by themselves? For inspiration, Sousa turned to this story of the lost boy of Averyon, as well as Kaspar Hauser, Romulus and Remus, and Irish fairy tales of stolen children. “Feral” is set in the 19th century, at a time when he says “most people still had a direct connection with raw nature, rural communities were still prevalent, and cities coexisted with forested spaces. So it was still plausible that a child could get lost in the woods, and be found again.”
Elaborating on the mysteries that piqued his fascination, Sousa states: “I wanted to explore questions about what it means to be human. Do we have a built-in code that determines who we become, or do we learn how to think and behave based on what we are exposed to? What would a human being become in a social vacuum? What happens when the child is coded as a wolf, or a bird, or a tree, or even as snow?”
Using a combination of traditional hand-drawn animation (yes, on paper!) and digital compositing and editing, Sousa’s final piece is a beautifully imaginative tale of a little boy who howls at a pack of wolves, but bares his teeth in the presence of a slowly approaching hunter.From there, the young wild boy’s journey to domestication is one of confusion, angst, loss, and rebellion. It’s a captivating story with soft textures that make it look like Sousa used acrylic paint, charcoal, crumpled paper, and clouds to conjure his clever designs from brain to paper. In short, “Feral” is a gorgeous work of art that is not to be missed.
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