Animafest Zagreb Review: Son of a Bitch has the bite to back up its bark
Generally, you don't want to be called a "son of a bitch." Sure, it might sometimes be thrown out there with begrudging respect or a jocular friendliness, but I think it's fair to posit that most of the time, it isn't exactly being used as a compliment. For Ismael, the young man at the center of Son of a Bitch, which played tonight at Animafest Zagreb, it's perhaps more a fact than anything else. His mom, Maria Teresa, is the most famous prostitute in the small Brazilian village of Veredas, so everyone in town calls him "son of a bitch." And since he's a sort of jack-of-all-trades handyman, he is constantly fielding requests as he walks through town. But Ismael is much more interested in the parent who isn't in town: his father, whom he never met, whose name he doesn't even know. It's a familiar narrative we see play out time and time again: the kid who wants to know why they were left behind, who builds a kind of fantasy world around...
