Raw (2017)

RAW made its World Premiere in Cannes Critics Week where it won the coveted FIPRESCI Prize, and left audiences aghast with some of the most shocking and powerful on-screen imagery since Gaspar Noe’s IRREVERSIBLE. The atmosphere in the cinema that day was one of the most electric the Monster team had ever witnessed – from the start we could sense a nervous anticipation in the room and then from the very first scene, it kicks you in the head with a power that is raw and fierce. RAW is one of the finest directorial debuts in the genre space in a long time, it tells the story of a teenage girl who joins her sister at a prestigious veterinary college, and is forced to partake in a hazing ritual that sees her defying her vegan upbringing by consuming raw rabbit liver. From here she develops an insatiable desire for flesh – of all types, and what we witness is a coming-of-age like no other, an awakening that is carnal and primal and that takes its central character, and its viewing audience, on a journey that is simultaneously harrowing and beautiful. Filmmaker Julia Ducournau has made a something very special here, a gorgeous cinematic exploration of family and cannibalism, a film that’ll seep its way deep into your psyche and resonate long after the closing credits.