The animal condition

For the first viewing, stop at 7’44. Ask the children to tell the story, to say what they understood. To do this, you can use the “question the film” sheet. Then ask them to hypothesize about the end of the story: What do you think will happen? How will the story end? This work can be done orally or in writing. Have a group discussion then watch the end of the film. Not only will the dog get out of the house, but he will explore the world. We can follow his journey in the end credits. You can pause the image at each destination and have the children guess the different countries they have visited. As for the owner, locked up in turn, he finds himself in the situation that he himself put his animal through. What will become of him? We can again make assumptions.

Then, watch the film again and have notes taken for more in-depth work... On the second viewing, focus on the animal's emotions. His thirst for freedom appears very well in the image, particularly at 1 min 57 s, we see the landscapes passing by in front of him. The tension rises more and more; physically, he changes his appearance: his eyes become bulging and bloodshot. He becomes more and more agitated and ends up breaking everything in the house, without knowing that this is what will deliver him (broken door handle).

On the third viewing, focus on the man: is he capable of taking care of the animal? Obviously not, since he already doesn't take care of himself! Ask the children to look for examples in the film. From the beginning, we see him serving coffee in the dog's bowl; he thinks about blowing on his cup of coffee to cool it but it’s dog food he has in his hand!

Then start a discussion on the animal condition. Do animals feel emotions? Do they know pain? Is it okay to lock a dog in the house? Then we can expand and talk about abandonments at the beginning of summer, hunting, bullfighting, cockfights, factory farming, animals in circuses, force-feeding of geese... Offer the children different media: films, documentary readings, novels, reports... The children will be able to research a theme and present a presentation to the class. And to finish and give a great example of human/animal complicity, discover the trailer for the film “Hatchi” inspired by a true story.