The “Bathtub” in “Beasts of the Southern Wild” is a bayou on the brink of destruction. 

Though life hasn’t gotten any better for its residents—the water surrounding them is chipping away at their land, leaving them practically homeless—they remain resilient and brave the elements. 

As the Bathtub slowly deteriorates, director Benh Zeitlin finds hope within Hushpuppy, (Quvenzhane Wallis) a 6-year-old girl who lives with her father, Wink, and believes it to be a paradise. 

Then, of course, Hushpuppy and all of the Bathtub’s residents have a close relationship with the Earth, and perhaps that is why they refuse to leave.

Hushpuppy is convinced that animals speak to her, and in one scene after her land falls to the monsters, she and a giant bore-like creature, an Auroch, come face to face. 

Instead of charging at her, it stops straight in its tracks, stares her in the eyes, and both seem to understand one another.

This is a first-time picture for director Benh Zeitlin, who worked with a cast of unseasoned actors.

His resources were limited, and he barely scrapped together the funding to create and finish the film. 

Yet Benh managed to make a film that looks like a contender for an Oscar, or at least a nomination. 

Wallis, an actress who stumbled into the partat the age of 6, demonstrates a range that is well beyond her years. 

This is an actress who could stand her own against Meryl Streep. 

Hopefully, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will recognize her talent, because oftentimes they nominate popular performances over impressive ones. 

At last year’s ceremony, Rooney Mara (“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”) was nominated over Tilda Swinton (Let’s talk about Kevin)—grrr.  

Wallis’ lack of film experience may be what makes it so easy for her to transform into Hushpuppy; there are no expectations or comparisons to previous performances. 

She is free to work without worrying about people’s, critics included, comparisons of her previous performances.

First-time actor Dwight Henry, a baker from New Orleans, plays her father Wink. The father-daughter chemistry both actors have is so real that it makes it hard to believe they’re merely putting on a performance on camera. 

Set in a swamp in Louisiana—one of the harshest places on Earth—Zeitlin creates a world full of beauty in an environment that is so limiting, using every part of the setting to his advantage and creating a world outside this world with rustic elements that look beautiful on the screen. 

The villagers build homes out of tin and car parts along tiny bits of land, building a land of fantasy in one of the least beautiful places on Earth. 

With the world created by Benh and his cast, Beasts almost becomes an allegorical film about the fragile ties between mankind and nature. 

The villagers remain faithful to their land even as it submerges under water because the polar icecaps melt away (a possible allusion to global warming). 

In one of the film’s most tender moments, I think, is when Hushpuppy says, “I see that I’m a little piece of a big, big universe, and that makes it right.”

Hushpuppy and the people living in the Bathtub don’t treat the world around them as a simple background. They interact with it; it’s a major part of their lives.

Their love of nature could serve as a lesson for the rest us.

In order to watch this film, I had to take a train to Champaign and watch it at its Art Theatre. 

It played for a limited time, but if you want to catch a glimpse of it, “Beasts of the Southern Wild” is currently playing at Landmark Cinemas in Peoria.  

“Beasts of the Southern Wild” is worth watching; it’s an amazing film made up of uncommon elements that moviegoers are hardly ever exposed to. 

Jaime Lopez can be reached at 581-2812 or jlopez2@eiu.