My Feral Heart (2016)

When I first saw the trailer for My Feral Heart I wasn’t expecting much as it seemed like a storyline that I may not be able to get behind and what I saw of the characters I didn’t think I would be able to sympathise with or understand their point of view. However, I was completely wrong we to see enough of the story that when things start changing I was able to connect and be more involved. I also really enjoyed how the characters were shown and how each of them developed. Jane Gull, the director started out as an actress then started directing short movies.

My feral heart is a film about a boy with down syndrome called Luke (Steve Brandon). Luke looks after his mother who is ill. She dies in her sleep at the start of the movie. He is forced to move to a home for people with learning difficulties, called Blossom Hill. Luke is very independent and doesn't enjoy being there, he sneaks out and finds a girl in the field (Pixie Le Knot) which he then begins to look after, he looks after her like she is his mother however the audience are still curious. He meets a guy called Pete (Will Rastall) and he is doing community service of some kind, him and Luke become really close, they tell each other a lot of their secrets. Pete also protects the foxes, he stops the fox hunts that happens and is shown in the film. One of the workers at the home is called Eve (Shana Swash), she takes time to learn about Luke and she begins to trust him. She lets him go to the shops on his own, he is also allowed to help out Pete in his work. We learn a lot about Pete and his life but there are still a lot of unanswered questions. During a fox hunt stop, things kick off and it gets very overwhelming . The ending of My Feral Heart is quite an odd ending as there are still many unanswered questions, which left many people in the audience frustrated and quite disappointed.

There were many parts of the film that I enjoyed. I liked how Jane Gull showed and represented Luke, I also liked that the story’s focal point was around someone with down syndrome. I appreciated the casting as most of the people in the home did actually have a learning difficulty. My favourite character development was probably Pete, as Gull could have gone down the easy route and just wrote/shown him as a bad boy, who didn't care about himself very much let alone anyone else but he was a very surprising character and so was his development. Pete was shown as not very rich when we first met him because he was always wearing the same clothes. This helped the audience to build a relationship and a connection between Luke and Pete because both of them didn't have very many luxuries. Luke had a dark blue parka coat with orange on the inside of it. The dark blue could suggest the sadness and the sense of loss he felt when his mother died, also it was the only piece of clothing that the audience saw from his ‘previous’ life, helping to show the link. The orange on the inside of the coat connotes the happiness he felt when he finally met Pete and met someone who was closer to his age and that he could talk too. The orange also highlighted the new fascination and outlook he had on life. Pete had a very similar hoodie with the same colour scheme, which helped to further represent their connection to the audience.

My favourite scene from My Feral Heart was probably the ending, not because I enjoyed how it ended but the way it was filmed and the message I think that it portrayed. At the end of the movie we see all four main characters together in the same situation for the first time. Luke has collapsed on the floor and the feral girl has called for help, Pete and Eve then come to help him. Pete is hovering over Luke, whilst giving him contact. In this scene we get to see Pete be Pete, he isn't being selfish and is worried about Luke, this helps the audience to understand how close Luke and him were. There are a lot of close up shots of both Luke and Pete, this helps the audience to see the way that both of them are reacting to the situation, this helps the audience to feel more connected to them and more involved in the scene itself. The audience in this scene are also able to see the feral girl properly for the first time. There are not a lot of shots of her but she is holding Luke's hand which shows the audience that they have developed a strong relationship. Pete is also shown as being confused as he doesn't know who this girl is, but through the use of camera shots we are able to see that a potential relationship may be formed between these two characters. Eve is not shown in the final shot of the film as she as gone to get help. By her not being there we can finally see Pete and Luke connect because their relationship has been held back from Eve and other workers at care home. Even though this is one of my favourite scenes, the ending was very abrupt and there were a lot of unanswered questions and in my personal opinion I felt kind of disappointed because we didn't get to see further development in the characters.

I would recommend this film to 16 + not because the storyline was complex and hard to understand but because there are a lot of very controversial topics that were brought up and I feel as though if you hadn't experienced/learned about different types of people you wouldn't be able to appreciate the movie to its full extent. I would also recomend this to people who have experienced similar things to Luke for example if they are/were a young carer, know someone who had down syndrome and or has a learning difficulty themselves. This film sets a good example and shows what having a learning difficulty is really like to some extent.

I have never seen a film that follows this storyline or the life of someone with down syndrome. The conflicts and problems shown are also very unique, you can tell that the writer put a lot of effort into how the plot develops and thickens.