Savages review – indigenous teen and baby orangutan take on developers in Borneo
Kéria (voiced by Babette De Coster) is a teenage girl living on the edge of this rich and beautiful wilderness, with her widower dad (Benoît Poelvoorde), who is glumly employed by one of the palm-oil plantations that is eroding it. Kéria is partly of indigenous Penan heritage, and is irritated when her Penan cousin Selaï (Martin Verset) comes to stay after his home village is wiped out. Together they get lost in the forest with a baby orangutan called Oshi which Kéria and her dad rescued when the evil planters shot its mother. Their adventures take them to the truth about Kéria's dad and her late mother, to her Penan heritage and to a fateful confrontation with the plantation officials, who are swaggering, gun-toting bullies.
Kéria and the tribespeople courageously face down these people with their blow-pipes containing unpoisoned darts (the cringing company cowards, fearing for their lives, soon lose their nerve). However, the campaign website about the Borneo rainforest which accompanies this film notably does not actually advocate direct action of this sort.
Savages is in UK and Irish cinemas from 1 August
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