Beasts Of The Southern Wild   A breathtakingly original magical-
realist fable set in a Louisiana bayou  It must have been one
hell of a pitch. An allegorical fable about climate change
devastating a dirt-poor Louisiana bayou? Narrated by a six-year-
old philosopher whose drunken daddy Wink loves home-made hooch
as much as he loves her?  You’d empty a room of movie executives
faster than Wink drains a bottle.  Hoorah then for the Sundance
Lab, for helping to develop this fiercely out-of-the-ordinary
winner of the Camera d’Or (the award for best first feature) at
Cannes, a film that blindsides you with its breathtaking
originality and sheer vitality.  Part fantasy, part magical-
realist melodrama, its secret weapon is Hushpuppy, a human
hurricane of a child, seeking answers about why her ailing
father and beloved village The Bathtub (a shanty town
constructed by the film’s creative team ‘Court 13’) are
threatened with extinction by the weather.  She’s played by non-
pro actor Quvenzhané Wallis, who exudes a tough,