Not just another man and mutt story

Johnson Thomas

Aiming to envisage how man found his best friend some 20,000 years ago, this first solo (minus brother Allen) Albert Hughes directorial, charts a unifying force that is distinctly amicable. This is not just another boy and dog story, it’s a unique origin tale (of sorts).

Keda (Kodi Smit-McPhee), son of a tribal chief (Johannes Haukur Johannesson) of a Cro-Magnon Solutrean tribe, archeologically known for their tool making and complex social hierarchies, on the way to leading his people on their annual bison hunt, get a herd stampeding in their direction. While in the process of diverting the rampaging herd, Keda gets caught on one beast's horns, lands on a tiny ledge, unconscious and too remote to be rescued and given up for dead by the grieving hunters. Broken and alone, he tames a lone wolf abandoned by its pack while learning to survive and navigate the harsh and unforgiving wilderness.

Considering this film is set in the unimaginable past depicting unlikely allies, there’s little sentimentality involved and the grittiness that the brothers are famed for is also missing. But that’s not a bad thing really. The antediluvian bent, fashioned on modern techniques allows for a vibrancy and affect that is altogether rare and imminently inviting.

The story envisages a personal boy-to-man growth for Keda, who initially, despite his father's high hopes for him as a leader of men, is unsure of himself, shying away from the tribal tradition of killing animals. His mother’s remark regarding his unique personality ‘he leads with his heart, not his spear,’ is luminously exemplified when he is under attack by a pack of wolves - he manages to stab the wolf, which leads the attack and then befriends him while nursing him back to health.

Hughes, teaming up with screenwriter Daniele Sebastian Wiedenhaupt, keeps the narrative raw and inviolate from clichéd expectations. It’s a reluctant bonding story between man and mutt that is eye-pleasing with striking compositions and a lushly alluring cinemascape.