Rats, the most under-loved rodents on the planet, live in the shadows, mostly confined to cages, sewers, and trash cans. What does the ghettoization of rats tell us about our own species? In his feature-film debut, director Theo Anthony creates a sweeping map of Baltimore through this denigrated animal. An eerie, futuristic narrator guides you on your journey through the streets of the city, stopping in an alley where rats are baited with peanut-butter-wrapped lunch meat and inside a 3D simulation of the life of a caged pet. Each sharp scene coalesces into a precise, poetic portrait: a dystopian underworld of rats intersecting with a human environment determined to control these furry varmints, affecting every other living being within the city limits. (True/False)
