Filmmaker Sofia Alaoui, who won Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize for her supernatural short So What If The Goats Die in 2020, returns to Sundance with her genre-bending, gorgeously-shot debut feature Animalia.

Per the film’s logline, Animalia begins as the heavily pregnant Itto (played by newcomer Oumaïma Barid) looks forward to a day of peace and quiet when she gets her affluent household mostly to herself after her husband, Amine, and her in-laws goes away on business.

She’s quickly lost sight of her modest origins and has adapted to her new family’s detached opulence. But when a mysterious state of emergency is declared nationwide, Itto struggles to find help; meanwhile, increasingly ominous events and strange weather phenomena suggest a supernatural presence is nearing. While frantically searching for a way back to Amine, Itto unexpectedly finds emancipation and the possibility of solace in a new world order.

Alaoui, the French-Moroccan filmmaker who featured as one of Screen Daily’s Arab Stars of Tomorrow, both writes and directs the film.

Animalia will premiere at Sundance as part of its World Cinema Dramatic Competition, on January 20th. No UK release date has yet been announced.

Watch the hypnotic trailer for the upcoming science-fiction thriller below, via Deadline: