The 2011 Cambridge Film Festival is now over, come back soon for details of next year's festival

Nenètte is the senior orangutan kept in the Jardin des Plantes, one of the oldest zoos in Paris. We see her daily routine: interacting with her co-inmates, taking her afternoon tea, and moving around her confined space. But NÉNETTE is not the animal documentary you might expect. It is a scrupulous treatment on human behaviour; an uncompromising close-up to our private thoughts and projections. Charismatic documentarist Nicolas Philibert (ÊTRE ET AVOIR) examines the ape with affectionate curiosity, while the sounds of the visitors’ voices compose a sharp allegory on the consciousness of modern societies. Ultimately, the film plays an elusive hide-and-seek with the visible and the invisible, commenting on the voyeuristic nature of cinema itself, and offers plenty of food for thought that will leave you wondering ‘who is watching whom?’

Print source: Artificial Eye Film Company