EXCLUSIVE
SASQUATCH SUNSET
The Zellner Brothers go ape with this myth-busting marvel…
It was incredibly difficult. It took years. But it’s what we signed up for,’ says David Zellner, talking about the torturous gestation of Sasquatch Sunset, the latest surreal slice of absurdism that he co-directs with brother Nathan. And no wonder: a year in the life of a Sasquatch family, with four actors all in hairy ape costumes grunting, groaning and behaving like beasts in the wild; it’s utterly unique. No dialogue, no human characters – just pure animal magnetism.
‘We’ve been fascinated with the mythology of Bigfoot since we were kids,’ says David, last seen subverting the western with 2018 Robert Pattinson-starrer Damsel. ‘Primates in general, we’ve always been obsessed with – whether it was 2001 or Planet of the Apes, or Koko the Gorilla. And a lot of National Geographic documentaries. When we decided to put together a feature, it wasn’t like we suddenly did a bunch of research; it was an accumulation of a lifelong interest.’ Back in 2010, they made the four-minute short Sasquatch Birth
Journal 2, featuring Nathan as the titular creature. Now he’s back as one of this hirsute quartet. ‘It was something that you don’t get to do that often. Just totally disappear into the make-up and into that character,’ says Nathan. Joining him are Jesse Eisenberg, Riley Keough and Christophe Zajac-Denek, who steer the story across four seasons, as the Sasquatch family face innumerable dangers out in the wild.
With Eisenberg on board as a producer, he even part-funded the film.
