Zoo Lock Down
Andreas Horvath / / 2022
The animals are home alone in the zoo as the pandemic shuts down the world and cages all the rest of us in our own homes. An understated, almost dialogue-free film from Salzburg Zoo off season.
What is a zoo if there are no people to look at the animals? The answer is explored in this patiently observant and almost dialogue-free film from the time of the pandemic when both animals and humans were caged in their own homes. We are in Salzburg Zoo where the loyal and loving animal keepers still turn up to feed the lemurs, trim an elcap, inseminate a rhino and clean the piranha fish tank from the inside and in swimming trunks. But other than them, there are no people to be seen. Austrian filmmaker Andreas Horvath observes the animals with an objective eye in stark contrast to the Disneyfied way most films look at the lives of animals – even when no one else is watching.