Co-directors and brothers David Zellner and Nathan Zellner have been obsessed with Sasquatch lore since childhood, thanks to television series like In Search of… (1977 – 1982), hosted by Leonard Nimoy, and the infamous Patterson-Gimlin film featuring the iconic footage of a large, fur-covered figure lumbering through the woods. They premiered a short called Sasquatch Birth Journal No. 2 at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011. So, despite feeling like a Sasquatch feature film would be impossible to make, the brothers went ahead and wrote a script.

The Zellners’ passion for the project is palpable—from the fact that Nathan Zellner plays the alpha Sasquatch himself, to the subtle details gleaned from anthropologists and cryptozoologists (as well as less rigorously scientific sources). This is the Zellners’ best guess as to what these creatures could possibly be like.

Sasquatch Sunset is nothing like the cryptic 1967 footage of some grainy likeness caught at a distance. Instead, an entire year of their lives is put on full, cinematic display, giving you everything you would ever want to know and some things you might wish you didn’t.

Drawing inspiration from 1970s Disney live-action animal films and documentaries, as well as the French-British film The Bear, the story is told entirely from the Sasquatches’ point of view. Moreover, every unflattering or uncomfortably relatable moment is captured as deftly as the natural beauty of the Californian landscape, thanks to director of photography Michael Gioulakis (It Follows, Us). Giolakis used an Alexa LF camera with specialized lenses to showcase the height of the colossal redwood trees while also making do with nothing more than the sun, natural shadow, and an LED flashlight he bought at Target.

The quality of the film’s production only serves to heighten the contrast between what we have come to expect when it comes to Bigfoot footage—blurry, grainy, mysterious—versus what we are shown here—crisp, clear, explicit… and beautiful. Which complements the biggest contrast of all: how a film that is so vulgar and absurd manages to be so incredibly moving.

The Sasquatches in Sasquatch Sunset reflect the gray area between human and animal behaviour. Take, for example, the way the female is harangued for sex by her male companions. Or their quite visceral reactions to encountering a paved road for the first time. For a film based in folklore and fantasy, there are elements that simply ring true.

The film challenges us to reconsider not just our connection with the natural world, but our own place within the increasingly fast-paced and urbanized spaces we inhabit. How easily might we find ourselves left behind or stumbling through a world that has changed without us?

For such a seemingly silly film, it resonates more than you’d think. Especially given how bewildering and unsettled our world has become, it’s worth considering: How different are we, really? Are we cut out for this? When it comes to our own existence, when confronted with things that exceed our understanding or control, how do we take it? Suddenly, the Sasquatch way doesn’t feel that farfetched.

Sasquatch Sunset is now streaming on MUBI. Watch this and hundreds of other hand-picked films with 30 days free at mubi.com/booooooom.