SYNOPSIS

Antonia (45) and Mavra (27) live together, confined to a house with domesticated animals. Family hierarchies create a competitive relationship between the two women, which turns into a power game and leads them to the brink of cannibalism. Protect or incarcerate; care for or exploit; use or abuse? A story which raises issues such as the collapse of moral boundaries when confronted by the insatiable human thirst for power.

INTENTION

Raised by a passionate surgeon father and a pharmacist mother, I developed an early curiosity about biology and anatomy alongside a profound respect for all living organisms. Questions such as what the brain looks like or why animals have tails shaped my formative understanding of life sciences since my childhood.

How can we unconditionally take care of one another, without claiming ownership over them, without giving them the illusion of freedom? Mammalia juxtaposes such inquiries with contemporary concerns such as meat overconsumption, animal exploitation, systemic power, social cannibalism, gendered dynamics, and spatial confinement. The act of killing is preceded by moments where two women assert dominance over animals. Within a patriarchal status quo, I examine power relations among femininities and how they are reshaped in a male-absent space.

Told through a hyper-realistic, non-linear narrative set in a domestic urban space, this film critiques speciesism, anthropocentrism, and our fractured coexistence with the natural world. It reflects on violence, cohabitation, and power.

“What are we? Humans? Or Animals? Or Savages?” — William Golding