An animal, representing all animals, on trial for crimes including “being disgusting,” in a dream-like confrontation between being and the law. Reflecting on the animal/human distinction, nature and second nature, continuity and collapse, Penumbra depicts a dream-like confrontation between being and the law.
The Life of Sean DeLear is a vibrantly multi-faceted, buoyantly propulsive documentary portrait of this irresistibly charismatic one-off — sketched in celebratory but commendably clear-eyed style by writer-director Markus Zizenbacher. There can be very few people better qualified to do justice to this particular tale. Zizenbacher befriended DeLear — born Anthony Robertson in Simi Valley, an obscure California backwater — after the latter relocated to Vienna in the early 2010s.
