London Film Festival Review: Mutafukaz – “A riotous delight”

When Angelino, a large-headed orphan, and his skeletal (literally) friend find themselves chased by some men in suits who seem intent on killing them, Angelino suddenly starts to see things in people’s shadows that make no sense. He’s used to keeping his head down in the aptly named Dark Meat City but he needs to find out what is going on if he’s going to make it out alive. And where his adventure takes him leads him to discover more than he bargained for about his own heritage.

The impressive animation in this film version of Mutafukaz is sure to shock and delight in equal measure, with some shots that are graphic and gross and others that are darkly comic and wildly entertaining. The detail is incredible and numerous little touches are littered throughout this visceral world the filmmakers Guillame ‘Run’ Renard and Shoujirou Nishimi have created.

The French that is spoken throughout was lost on me (thank you, subtitles!) but I did manage to catch some of the Spanish jokes, including the beautifully named ‘Pendejo St’ (Stupid Street).

That said, you don’t need to be trilingual to appreciate the genius here. Mutafukaz is clever, energetic and brilliantly surprising. With a mix of bloody violence and alien insanity, it is a riotous delight, full of fun, tension and drama, with a killer hip-hop soundtrack to boot.