When a young bullfighter is injured during a fight, the bull is killed and taken to an abattoir to be dismembered. Its various parts are then shipped to various locations around Europe. A little girl gets a bone for her dog, a man buys one of its eyes for his wife, a taxidermist gets the horns, a woman eats Toro en Rioja, and so forth.

In her debut feature length film, director Delphine Gleize creates an organic yet complex tale of how fate connects people. Coming from a background of short film, she extends it to “Carnages”, which at its centre is a collection of short films, connected by the bull and the motif, that there is something that connects each and every one of us. And while it is very heavy on symbolism, and at times does go outside the film, it is a remarkable and very mature debut film. Very slow, but at the end very rewarding.

Henrik Sylow