Tiger Stripes
Directed by Amanda Nell Eu
Running time: 1hr35 | REVIEWED BY CATHERINE BRAY
Tiger Stripes, starring Zafreen Zairizal
Near the start of Tiger Stripes, the arresting debut from director Amanda Nell Eu, mobile phone footage of a tiger wandering through a village reminds us of mankind’s habit of framing certain types natural phenomenon as dangerous, when in reality people themselves are normally the far more lethal half of the equation.
There’s a similar fear/aggression dynamic at work in the life of Zaffan (Zafreen Zairizal), a 12-year-old girl living in Malaysia, who gets her period for the first time shortly after we meet her. She’s initially one of those zesty, sparky girls, the one that her friends would rely on to supply the ideas and creativity in a make-believe game, the kid who adds a bit of daring and silliness to their lives. This type of girl will often have a tough time with the beginning part of adolescence, because they find that almost overnight their talent for make-believe has been dramatically devalued as a currency, in favour of the ability to mimic the subtleties of more grown-up behaviours, including but not limited to the cruelties and prejudices of adults. That this social shift coincides with perplexing physical changes is all part of the same mean joke.
Zaffan thus finds she’s lost control on two fronts, and it’s impossible for her to step off this physical and emotional rollercoaster. Zafreen Zairizal conveys the pain of this with apparent intuitive ease as a performer; all cinematographer Jimmy Gimferrer’s camera seems to need to do is shoot her expressive eyes in close-up and we’re right there, immersed in the terror and fury of it all. But this isn’t purely a social realist drama, and Zaffan’s troubles soon express themselves in classic art-house body horror form.
The subject matter here isn’t new: from The Exorcist to Carrie to Ginger Snaps to Raw (which also premiered here in the Critics’ Week at Cannes) and many, many more, female adolescence as a locus for horror is a popular topic. And that’s because throughout history and around the world today, female adolescence has been the subject of far more than its fair share of revulsion, terror and superstition. This latest addition to the monstrous feminine canon is a supple and engaging film that claws at your heart.
TIGER STRIPES (2023) Written by Amanda Nell Eu | Shot by Jimmy Gimferrer | Edited by Carlo Francisco Manatad
Playing at the 76th Cannes Film festival as part of Critics’ Week
