Director: Thomas Cailley
Loyalty, timing, and a wedding invitation collide in The Animal Kingdom, a 2023 French comedy-drama from Belgium and France.
What is The Animal Kingdom about?
Tom Collier and Daisy have built something that looks, from the outside, like a settled life together. So when Tom finally decides to get married, the proposal goes to Cecilia instead, a decision that ripples through everyone around him in ways he doesn't fully anticipate. What follows the wedding is not the resolution he expected: married life quickly wears him down under the weight of obligation and appearances, and old feelings resurface at the worst possible moments. Romain Duris leads a cast that includes Adèle Exarchopoulos and Tom Mercier, with newcomer Paul Kircher playing a key supporting role in a story that treats romantic regret with equal parts comedy and ache.
Cast & crew
Romain Duris carries the film as Tom, bringing his usual blend of restlessness and charm to a character who has already made his defining mistake before the story even begins. Adèle Exarchopoulos gives Daisy a quiet dignity that keeps her from becoming a simple plot device, while Tom Mercier and Paul Kircher round out a supporting cast that grounds the film's more absurd domestic comedy in real emotional stakes.
Context & significance
Despite the English title, The Animal Kingdom is a French-Belgian co-production directed by Thomas Cailley, part of a wave of French relationship comedies that use a single impulsive decision as the hinge for everything that follows. The film's original French billing places it alongside a cluster of 2023 releases exploring marriage, regret, and second chances through a comic rather than melodramatic lens.
Where & how to watch
The Animal Kingdom streams on K-Time in a Farsi-friendly interface, with Persian dubbing and Persian subtitles both available for viewers who want them. Watching the film requires logging into a free K-Time account; this synopsis page is open to read without any login.