The Capybaras by Alfredo Soderguit (review)

The chickens are living contentedly on the farm, so when a family of capybaras arrives in the neighboring pond and upends the chickens’ routine, the feathered fowl are understandably upset. The newcomers are allowed to stay as long as they don’t make any noise, don’t come out of the water, don’t come near the food, and don’t question the rules. Everything changes, though, when a little chick is rescued by the capybaras from a violent encounter with a dog, and the chickens, now rather sheepishly, fold the rodents into their flock. The spare text of this title by Uruguyuan author/filmmaker Soderguit provides a quiet parable on the immigrant or refugee experience, avoiding overwrought browbeating, and the delicate art, limited in palette mostly to shades of gray, brown, and pops of red, evokes a mood that lands somewhere between gentle and eerie. Savvy viewers may catch on that farm life isn’t as pleasant as the chickens believe it to be, and their eventual leaving with the capybaras offers both a sense of relief and rebellion.