FOUR SOULS OF COYOTE

Hungary, 2023, 103 minutes, Colour.

Voices of: Lorne Cardinal, Diontae Black, Bill Farmer.

Directed by Aron Gauder.

Four Souls of Coyote is quite an unexpected cinema experience. It is an animation film. It is from a Hungarian director, a particularly European sensibility. However, it is a film about North America and its mythologies and histories, the Native Americans, the inroads by the newcomers to the continent.

The animation visual style is quite striking, range of characters, different landscapes, the present, the past, the landscapes of mythologies.

The film opens in the present, big business and exploitation, the destruction of the environment, business arrogance and the need to be challenged.

In the meantime, amongst the local Native Americans, the grandfather tells his granddaughter the story of the origins, the visualising of various mythologies, the different animals, parallels with Genesis narratives, issues of good and evil, especially embodied by the creature, the coyote, and its four manifestations.

The voices used are those of Native American actors.

There are quite some vivid sequences of the British, the invasion, the taking over of the land and the various political and cultural issues.

After this exploration of the mythologies, the action returns to the present, the need for some kind of protest, confrontation with the exploitation of big business – and, hopes for harmony and reconciliation, working together for the future.

1. The impact of the film? The animation style? The Hungarian director and European sensibility? The Native American myths, Native American history, the British invasion, religion and culture, 21^st-century and exploitation of the land?
2. The animation style, the characters, colour, movement, layout? Realistic aspects? Surreal and imaginative aspects? The total effect? The musical score?
3. The framework, the exploitation of the land, the business executive, relentless, phone calls, the companies? The vehicles, the drivers, the defiance? The protesters, the placards, motivations? The film as a protest?
4. The grandfather, the granddaughter, the fire, his telling the story? The Native American heritage?
5. The visualisation of the story? Origin story? The creator and his appearance, the appearance of the dark, their conversations? The various stages of development, evolution, the formation of the land, in its bird form, the materials, the gradual progress, the familiarity with creation and origin mythologies?
6. The coyote, the four souls, emblem of evil, confrontation? The stealing of the material, the formation of the band, of the woman? The Satan aspects? The development of the man and the woman? Against the coyote, independence, descendants?
7. The impact of this visualising of the mythologies, embassies, comparisons with Genesis narratives? Good, evil, the development of the world, progress, animals, crops, humans? The significance of the creation of the buffalo, its status, the coyotes and attack?
8. The invasion, the picture of the British, the visuals, the costumes, the ships, courtrooms? The presumptions of colonisation? Of religion and culture? The interaction with the Native Americans, the consequences?
9. The hopes for peace, interactions, the realities of history, the contrasts?
10. The return to the initial situation, the attack of the vehicles, the revolt of the drivers, the protesters, the possibility for some kind of settling differences, hope for the future?