- This event has passed.
Saturday 11th May 2019
American Animals
Bring something to sit on and whatever you need to stay warm and dry
The incredible and anxiety inducing, “true story” of four alienated young men in Kentucky who plot to commit a multi million dollar book heist from their local university library.
Directed by Herne Hill’s very own Bart Layton, American Animals opens with the claim “This is not based on a true story” but then removes the words “This is not.” A perfect film for our post truth, “alternative facts”, Trump and Brexit times.
The film gets it title from one of the books to be stolen, Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species. American Animals explores the motivations, rationale and justifications of the criminals, played both by actors and shot with real life interviews of the people involved.
As planning for the crime develops, the audience is forced to ask where our loyalties lay. Are these “anti heroes” carrying out their own form of justified, social Darwinism or simply greedy thugs committing selfish violence against truth, knowledge and the library, our most social of venerable institutions?
