Looking for the Animals

A literary-film work that originates from letters collected in many countries, found at estate sales and thrift stores.

The letters range in subject matter from an Italian lieutenant damning his superiors during WW2 (“our general should be brought before a judge”) through the laments of a young man whose parents defect from the Soviet Block (“my parent’s actions have determined that I will never have a good job”) to the outrage caused by an incident during the course of an illicit love affair (“Mr Rust is not stupid and he knows my Father…”).

A drama develops that embraces a myriad of social and political concerns. Real, personal, quotidian events set against a backdrop of historic incidents, time-travel into the present with the help of the internet and an array of correspondents writing fictional and sometimes fantastic responses.