Ao: The Last Hunter

Ao: The Last Hunter (French: Ao, le dernier Néandertal) is a 2010 French prehistoric film directed by Jacques Malaterre, and is loosely based on the novel Ao, l'homme ancien by Marc Klapczynski.^[2]

Plot

The film takes place approximately 30,000 years ago, and focuses on the period of co-existence between Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons, when the two kinds of humans shared some parts of the Eurasian landscape. The film begins when climate swings and two Neanderthals; Aō (Simon Paul Sutton) and Bo bringing back meat to feed their clan after a hunt. Once they reached their cave, they realized that Ao's wife is in the midst of giving birth to their daughter which Ao named Nea. With his clan dead, Aō decided to leave his outpost in the frigid, barren tundra in northern Siberia, to reunite with his brother Oā in the South where he was born. His clan including his wife and her young, Néa, were already massacred by the modern human bands that arrived on the landscape. In the course of his travel Ao is captured by those modern humans, there he encounters a pregnant woman from a different tribe of mordern humans, named Āki (Aruna Shields) who becomes their prisoner as well, after they turned her into a widow. Ao decided to escape with the help of a wasp's nest he found on a tree within his enemies' campsite after witnessing Aki's husband being sacrificed by them. So covering himself with mud after breaking from his bonds, he knocks off the wasp's nest to let the angry swarm distract his enemies long enough for him to escape. Unbeknownst to him, Aki followed him quietly until he fell asleep in a cave. At that time, Aki's labour pains just begun. Ao woke up after hearing strange sounds. Afraid that it might be his pursuers, he put out his campfire and went to investigate. He discovered that it was Aki moaning and screaming in a secluded part of the cave as she was giving birth to Wama. Witnessing this, Ao believed that the newborn infant is the reincarnation of his deceased daughter, Nea. Ao kept talking to Wama and as Aki observed his interest in her daughter but doesn't understand why due to language barrier, she grew wary of Ao. After defeating the marauding Cro-Magnon warriors, Ao finds his birthplace only to realize his twin brother Oa, from whom he was separated when he was eleven, and the entire clan has already been consumed by a strange illness that had entered their cave. Ostracized by other tribes, Ao and Aki finally reach southern Iberia to settle and raise a family in solitude, close to the last known signs of Neanderthal life on Earth.^[3] During this time, Aki was shown to be heavily pregnant with Ao's child, Wama's half- sibling.

Cast

Ao- The main protagonist of the movie. He became a widower after his adopted Neanderthal clan which included his wife and newborn daughter was murdered by two modern humans.
Aki- The second protagonist of the movie who is captured by the same tribe of mordern humans who imprisoned Ao. She proved to be an independent female character in the movie time and again.
Wama- The daughter of Aki and her late husband. She became Ao's stepdaughter after her mother and him decided to become a couple nearing the end of the movie.
Aguk- The main antagonist of the movie.

References

External links

• Official site of the film AO, le dernier Néandertal by Jacques Malaterre