Beasts of the Southern Wild

(Image credit: Everett/REX/Shutterstock)

Quvenzhané Wallis is remarkable as a six-year-old girl living in extreme poverty in an isolated Louisiana bayou

Quvenzhané Wallis is remarkable as a six-year-old girl living in extreme poverty in an isolated Louisiana bayou.

Erratically raised by her heavy-drinking, sickly father, Oscar-nominated Wallis' Hushpuppy inhabits a ramshackle settlement known as the Bathtub, which is cut off from the rest of the world by a levee and constantly under threat of being drowned by rising floodwaters.

Like the hardscrabble folk around her, tiny Hushpuppy is resilient and independent, but mythic Ice-Age beasts called aurochs haunt her imagination and a storm is gathering.

Indie director Benh Zeitlin's remarkable debut film explodes with energy and colour, the Cajun rock score soars and the film's young lead is astonishing (most of the cast is non-professionals; the actor who plays her father is a baker).

A potent ecological fable about the perils of global warming - surrender to its wondrously weird spell and it an intoxicating and exhilarating movie.