Soul of a Beast (2021)

Seventeen-year-old Gabriel is a passionate skateboarder. He takes care of his two-year-old son Jamie on his own and is a loving father to him. When his best friend Joel introduces him to his girlfriend, Corey, Gabriel is persuaded to take drugs with them. While high, they break into the city zoo. Gabriel casts loving glances at Corey. When he comes to the next day, the first thing he does is apologize to his son for this lapse. For Gabriel, it was a one-off; he takes his responsibility as a father very seriously. Joel tells him that he is in love for the first time in his life, but that Corey will soon be leaving for Guatemala for a whole year. Gabriel meets Corey again and passes Jamie off as his younger brother. On television, a report says that several zoo animals have escaped and have not yet been found. Zoé, the boy’s mother, lives with her parents in a luxurious house with a great many servants, and because of her addiction she would not be able to look after the boy anyway. The responsibility therefore rests entirely with Gabriel. Only occasionally can he leave Jamie with a prostitute for a few hours. One day, while she is looking after Jamie again for a few hours, Gabriel drives into the woods with Corey, where they pretend to be animals and imitate their calls. Later that summer day, they go swimming in Lake Zurich. Corey asks him whether he wants to go to Guatemala with her. In Corey’s mother’s allotment garden, Joel confronts the two of them. He lightly wounds Gabriel in the face with a samurai sword, casually mentions that Jamie is Gabriel’s son, and storms off in anger. During a visit to Zoé, Gabriel realizes that she has become completely estranged from her son. Zoé’s mother carries the boy around against his will, and he presses a cocktail skewer into her eye. A short time later, Zoé turns up at Gabriel’s apartment, spends the night there, and wants to sleep with him. Gabriel imagines Corey and angrily throws Zoé out. At the door, he tells her to disappear from his life. In the rain, the police pick Zoé up for being out on the street during the curfew imposed because of the escaped zoo animals. Amid the May Day riots in Zurich, Gabriel searches for Corey. He first runs into Joel again, who accuses him of betrayal. The two fight and are separated by bystanders. Later, Gabriel finds Corey, who accuses him of lying about his son. She initially says goodbye to him, but then kisses him after all. When the police begin using tear gas, the two flee to a quiet place and have sex. Corey suggests that Gabriel simply take Jamie with him to Guatemala. Gabriel runs home to pack, but discovers that Zoé’s mother has taken Jamie to her place. He gets into a car, but it will not start. Meanwhile, Joel takes Corey to the airport on his motorcycle. She calls Gabriel on the way and apologizes to him. Joel and Corey have an accident: Corey dies, and Joel is taken to the hospital with serious injuries. Gabriel runs to the accident scene and sees his friends being carried away. With the help of the samurai sword, he gets his son back and spends the night in the garden shed at Corey’s parents’ home. In a dreamlike scene, he enters a building beneath a bridge, where he encounters the escaped giraffe and puts it down mercifully. In the final scene, he walks through the hospital corridors. He remembers the days when he skateboarded through the city’s streets and tunnels with Joel, and some intimate moments with Corey; finally, memories of Jamie’s birth come flooding back. A Japanese-speaking narrator comments on the events from time to time.