The Beaver

• Drama

A darkly comedic drama unfolds as a successful but deeply depressed executive retreats into the persona of a beaver hand puppet, using it as a peculiar conduit to reconnect with his estranged wife and son. This isn't a story *about* overcoming depression so much as it’s an unsettling exploration *through* it, presenting a profoundly awkward and often disturbing portrait of a man dismantling his life and attempting reconstruction through bizarre, tactile means. The film balances the bleakness of Walter’s internal struggle with the bewildered, and occasionally inventive, responses of his family, particularly his son who navigates the fallout with a mixture of anger and desperate attempts to reach the man behind the fur. It’s a uniquely uncomfortable, yet strangely compassionate, look at the isolating weight of mental illness and the unconventional paths to finding – or at least attempting – connection.