Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Amanda Collin, Abubakar Salim, Winta McGrath, Travis Fimmel, Niamh Algar, Jordan Loughran, Felix Jamieson, Ethan Hazzard, Aasiya Shah, Ivy Wong, Clayton Evertson, Loulou Taylor, Matias Varela, Susan Danford, Litha Bam, Garth Breytenbach, Anila van Rensburg, Shoko Yoshimura, Jenna Upton, Daniel Lasker, Avumile Qongoo, Nala Khumalo, Chris Fisher, Sienna Hurst, Tristan de Beer, Tanya van Graan, Tarryn Wyngaard, Kabelo Bouga Chalatsane, Cosmo Jarvis, Brendan Sean Murray, Adrian Schiller, Fadzai Simango, Carel Nel.
You can take a group of children and put them in group seclusion, keep them away from doctrine and zealotry, and yet they will still conceive the idea of religious dogma. It may not be in keeping with one that we know or understand, perhaps even keep the faith of, but it will still be there, the idea will still exist in their minds, passed on as if inherited in the genes, a race memory of giving yourself over and praising a higher power.
There is nothing inherently wrong with faith, it is the coded belief, the evolution of the doctrine that provides soldiers for war and misery, zealots for spreading the word; and children are normally the prime concern when it comes to keeping the word alive. This is where the problems start, this is where war takes life, and one that addressed with insight in the ten-part first season of the acclaimed drama, Raised By Wolves.
Earth has long since been destroyed by a war fought between atheists and by the followers of Sol, and in this struggle the survivors have fled to start anew. The trouble is that wherever humans go, religion also follows. It is to two androids that the hope of humanity rests, and as with all the good science fiction films of our time that have the impressive stamp of Ridley Scott attached to them.
It is again to faith, but of the film making kind, that Raised By Wolves digs deep into collective thought, that Ridley Scott acts as Executive Producer to Aaron Guzikowski’s front runner and creator of the series is conviction enough to immerse yourself into the unsettling drama that unfolds.
The question of humanity’s continued existence is always one that has gone beyond the dynamic of Science Fiction, and yet it is the spectre of the genre, its own ghost in the machine perspective, that sees religion at war with itself as the survivors are faced with the fear that the planet, and its disturbing inhabitants, provide.
Faith, in Ridley Scott and Aaron Guzikowski, is not displaced or short on order, and with superb performances by two of the young leads, Winta McGrath as Campion and Felix Jamieson as Paul providing the narrative and balance between light and truth between them, and the disquieting perfection sought by Amanda Collin in her role as the Android, Mother, Raised By Wolves is a bleak, but superbly filmed, reminder of what is to come if we cannot step out of the shoes of blind faith, of waging war on our fragile planet in the name of many gods.
Unnerving, troubling, insightful beauty; Raised By Wolves is a tale for the age.
Ian D. Hall