Animalia: original Moroccan sci-fi debut gets spiritual about alien invasion

Weird changes in animal behaviour are the first sign of trouble in Sofia Alaoui’s debut feature, suggesting a predictable alien invasion-movie road map that Animalia rarely follows. Early on, a magpie flies from the jaws of a dog who tries to devour the bird mid air. Alaoui’s film will prove just as slippery, taking more inspiration from Tarkovsky’s Stalker (1979) than, say, Independence Day (1996). In Animalia, the supposed arrival of extraterrestrials ushers in philosophising on faith and Moroccan class divides. There are no little green men – but there are plenty of gnomic utterances: God is “as elusive as a black ant on a black rock on a dark night”.

The film has a similar plot to her short So What if the Goats Die? (2020), a starlit supernatural chamber piece (shot, like Animalia, by director of photography Noé Bach) about an Amazigh shepherd. Animalia puts the focus on Itto (memorable newcomer Oumaima Barid), a heavily pregnant young Amazigh woman whose modest background puts her at odds with the wealthy family she’s married into. Their ostentatious desert compound is shown in Lanthimos-y wide shots, dwarfing Itto in velvet furnishings and intricate zellij tiles; the place feels like it’s been dipped in gold. Itto might enjoy the finery, if it weren’t for the withering side-eye from her mother-in-law, played by Souad Khouyi with glamorous, glacial reserve.

Alaoui doesn’t harp on the sense of alienness that can come with the third trimester of pregnancy, but captures how adrift it can make a person feel. One of Itto’s few poignant moments of connection is when she hugs a sheep. When the ‘creatures’ arrive, she is alone, and must seek help from hotel receptionist Fouad (the shepherd in So What if the Goats Die?) to reach safety. Their dynamic is the most interesting in the film, with Fouad, who is also of Amazigh background, speaking plainly about the contradictions of Itto’s life: “You speak Berber now you have problems!” As Indigenous people, they’re both discriminated against, but Itto’s ties to a rich family will get her past military checkpoints.

Together they travel the dusty red landscape of the Atlas Mountains, as though dune-buggying over Mars. Alaoui uses simple effects – slow-mo, dissolves, a flash of what looks like the aurora borealis – with great skill to communicate the uncanny. This low-fi texture is the film’s strength – as the alien invasion reaches body-snatching levels, it’s signalled by the creepy appearance of ants on characters’ skin. The most unnerving effect of all is hearing people, once they are infected by the aliens, repeat the lie we all tell each other in crisis: “Everything will be fine.”

► Animalia is in UK cinemas 12 December.