via GIPHY

Throughout the film, many acts of both implicit and defiant protest can be observed, committed by the students on behalf of the students. While each individual act of protest is important to the message of the film, few are as interesting as the acts of protests by Rull, one of the main characters. In the attached GIF, the audience witnesses a scene where Billa, another main character, is upset about Rull telling other people that the two slept together, so she confronts him. Rull, being the snark he is, sits there in silence and simply stares on at her. In order to illicit some sort of response from the boy, Billa says “Say something for once!”. Instead of receiving an appropriate response, Rull responds in one word: “gorilla.” While at first this seems to serve no logical purpose, this nonsensical response is in fact a form of protest, in the form of refusal to respond. Not only does this contribute to the protest heavy themes of the film, it also helps to establish and fortify Rull’s character and character arc by defining his personality and actions towards others. Despite the clear upset feelings Billa is experiencing on behalf of Rull’s actions, he seems to show no care for anything other than himself and his own views, and carries that personality throughout the rest of the film. https://ephmedia.giphy.com/9c716dbb-c2b6-43d3-b751-d26b1c01e389.gif

For some reason the GIF did not like being downloaded to my computer, so I have included a link in case it does not work on other people’s screens.