Sasquatch Sunset releases April 12, 2024.
David and Nathan Zellner — known professionally as Zellner Bros. — may not be a household name (yet), but their films have garnered a reputation for defying the standards set by Hollywood. As true auteurs they bring a distinct style and vision to their often unconventional stories. No film is a truer depiction of this than the bigfoot dramedy Sasquatch Sunset. The film — which acts as a sort of expansion upon their 2011 short-film Sasquatch Birth Journal 2 — premiered at Sundance earlier this year.
Zellner Bros. Talk Sasquatch Sunset
Also Read: Sasquatch Sunset Review – Hilarious, Heartfelt, and Hairy
Saying that the movie is unique is an understatement. It’s void of comprehendible dialogue and the filmmaking duo made the choice to not include subtitles. They aren’t the first to have this idea, but it is extremely uncommon. Mel Gibson famously wanted to forgo subtitles for The Passion of the Christ, only changing his mind following the urgings of church officials and test screening audiences. For the Zellner Bros. it was never a question, and subtitles were never an option.
“Not having the subtitles just allowed you to be more immersed in their world.”
According to David, tone and perspective were imperative to the writing of the script. “We wanted to approach it from the… the perspective of the sasquatches themselves, and to be completely immersed in their world without judgment or shame,” he explained. Finding that world without judgement certainly didn’t mean shying away from less favorable or flattering depictions. We see the bigfoots violently vomit with green goo left smeared across their face. We watch them urinate and defecate with complete disregard for cleanliness in the way that a sick animal in the wild would.
“Everything in this movie that is on the more extreme scale are things that we’ve seen our dogs or cats do, or you see videos of animals at zoos doing…”
Disney’s The Incredible Journey and various wild-life documentaries acted as inspiration when fine-tuning the film’s unique style. The goal was for audiences to forget that they were watching a person in a suit and to accept these characters as real. They wanted to “explore that grey area between animal and human behavior where it’s relatable.”
Bringing the family of sasquatches to life required a talented cast that included Jesse Eisenberg, Riley Keough and Nathan Zellner himself. The script was written with Nathan in mind because — in the words of David — “he was born to play a bigfoot.”
A large factor in the decision to make the feature-length film, was the response to the duo’s short-film Sasquatch Birth Journal 2. That film primarily consisted of a single, unwavering shot of a bigfoot in the distance giving birth while perched in a tree. “I remember joking with Nathan,” David recalled, “what if we expanded this further?”
“I just… started working on the script, um, not knowing what the result of it would be.”
Sasquatch Sunset receives its limited release on April 12, 2024 and opens wide on April 19, 2024. The film won’t be for everybody, but it’s quirky and heartfelt look at a year in the life of a family of sasquatches makes it one my favorite movies of the year.
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