The Bones

Jeremy Xido / Canada, Germany / 2024 / Czech Premiere / 98 min.

synopsis

It has been 67 million years since dinosaurs inhabited the Earth. The creatures of the ancient past, who are crucial in our ability to write the story of the present, left behind not only a fascinating history that shaped our world, but also parts of their bodies – bones and fossils, which today have an almost incalculable value. This is a fact known not only by passionate palaeontologists, for whom dinosaurs are the centre of professional interest and personal passion, but also by poachers and art dealers who, with the prospect of profit, do not hesitate to sell even the most significant artefact into private hands. This adventure documentary will provide a flight across continents and cultures as well as a multi-layered story about the clash of human desires – the desire to understand the past, or to appropriate it.

“The film now moves across the world, weaving together stories, complicated by the legacies of colonialism and late-stage capitalism. And then there is the very notion of ownership. Can anyone really own the dinosaurs? And does the very idea of ownership just miss the point of what the bones truly have to teach us about life on earth and our possible extinction?” — Jeremy Xido

biography

Dancer, actor and director Jeremy Xido studied painting and comparative literature at Columbia University. He works as the artistic director of the film company CABULA6 and is the author of the award-winning feature documentary Death Metal Angola (2012) and the three-part documentary series The Angola Project (2020). He is currently finishing Sons of Detroit.