Only the Animals

Only the Animals is a 2019 French drama film directed by Dominik Moll. It is based on the novel Seules les bêtes by Colin Niel. Plot In a prologue, we see a young Ivorian man, Rolex, bicycling through Abidjan with a goat tied to his back. He enters an apartment building and asks for "Papa Sanou." The scene shifts to the French Massif Central in midwinter, and the first chapter, "Alice." Alice Farange is an insurance agent making a visit to a sheep farm, where the owner, Joseph Bonnefille, lives alone. She greets him as he walks out of the woods. They go inside, do business, and then make love. Afterwards, Alice remarks that Joseph seems distracted. She returns home to the cattle farm where she lives with her husband, Michel, and her father. The TV warns of a blizzard and gives news of a missing woman, Evelyne Ducat, who lived with her husband in a country house nearby. The next day, a local policeman, Cedric Vigier, calls on the Faranges asking about the case, but they tell him nothing, even though Alice saw Evelyne's abandoned car on the way back from Joseph's. After Cedric leaves, Michel confronts Alice about her affair. When she calls on Joseph the next day, he is not at home. She enters the hay barn and finds his dog dead with a gunshot wound. Joseph appears and angrily tells her to leave. When Alice returns she sees Michel on the telephone, angrily saying he will not press charges. He refuses to explain and drives off, coming back with his nose bloody. Alice asks whether he fought with Joseph and killed his dog, but he is silent. The next day Michel disappears, leaving his empty car for Cedric and Alice to find. The next chapter, "Joseph," opens with the farmer finding the body of Evelyne behind his farmhouse: the scene that Alice interrupted at the start of her chapter, and the reason for Joseph's discomfiture. He tries to dispose of the body farther away, but has second thoughts and brings it back to the farm. There he builds a maze of hay bales in the barn to hide the body. Over the next days, he begins to talk to Evelyne, plays her music, and spends nights with her in the hideaway. He hallucinates a living Evelyne, who forgives him for failing to report the recent death of his mother promptly, leaving the body to decompose. The dog's barking at Evelyne's body arouses the suspicion of Cedric on a visit. Later, when the dog finds and bites at Evelyne's body, Joseph shoots him.