We The Animals 15

Manny, Joel and Jonah are three brothers tearing their way through childhood. Their mother and father have a volatile relationship that makes and unmakes the family many times over, often leaving the boys fending for themselves. As their parents fight, Manny and Joel begin to grow into versions of their father while their mother seeks to shelter her youngest, Jonah, within the cocoon of home. Distanced from his brothers, Jonah becomes increasingly aware of his desperate need to escape and begins to embrace an imagined world all his own.

We the Animals is a mesmerising adaptation of the award-winning autobiographical novel of the same name by Justin Torres. With flashes of Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight and Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, documentary maker Jeremiah Zagar has cemented himself as one to watch – and completely submerse yourself in his work as you do.