nature

Silvan Skrivanic was the last inhabitant of a remote island in the Adriatic Sea, but even the traces of his existence are gradually disappearing – whether in the memories of others or in a landscape ravaged by a harsh climate. With the fading shadows of the human soul, it is as if life itself is disappearing from the island, leaving behind only the wind, the skeletons of animals and the inscriptions on the walls that have lost their meaning for others.“The traces of the last soul and the prints of its existence, the messages of a place where everything has disappeared.”

Birth, mating and death under the microscope – that's the life cycle of fruitflies, the laboratory insects at the Centre for Animal Behaviour Research. With fascination and ironic detachment, this portrait of laboratory routine conveys how scientists dissect members of another species in the belief of their own superiority. White-robed gods deconstruct the living into the inanimate, turning organisms into numbers, categories and definitions, unaware that they themselves are captives of a giant human insectarium with its own collective behaviour, hierarchy and culture.

The documentary, which was part of the exhibition of the same name, captures moments of birds and people meeting together in urban space. The most glaring sign of the incongruity in such relationships is the great number of injuries with which these winged inhabitants of metropolises end up at rescue stations. Wounds and irreversible damage are inflicted on them through intentional and unintentional human activity, but also by human creations that serve the everyday functioning of society. At the other end of the spectrum, there are individuals who are not only interested in the life of birds, but also care about their welfare and, in a figurative sense, communicate with our avian companions.“Birds are made up of stories. No bird ever dies, even if it does. All birds that have ever lived have a common memory. Birds taught people how to build their cities out of rocky mountains.”Source: Galerie Jeleni

Vtáčnik is a small hill on the outskirts of Bratislava, which a few decades ago was decorated with vineyards and forests. For the director, like the other locals living there, it once represented a picturesque oasis of peace where birds took refuge. Today, however, it is being transformed beyond recognition by the cranes and excavators of property developers. Told from a detailed human and bird's eye perspective, this personal documentary composes an impartial mosaic of diverse, often conflicting accounts and ideas of what life in such a place should be like. Questions about economic concerns and the pursuit of a quality life in harmony with nature collide with the author's memories of her childhood. “My intention was not to divide people into good and bad, but to point out the system that leads people to elevate their individual interests above the common good and to enrich themselves at the expense of others.” — Eva Križková Source: Pravda Magazine

Matěj and Zuzana Dolinay are a married couple who are devoted to zoology. Through their YouTube channel, Living Zoology, they aim to introduce the general public to animals that are often marginalised and don't have the best reputation with the public. This includes mambas, one of the most venomous genera of snakes, which Matěj and Zuzana set out to find in Togo, Africa. The different stages of their expedition and work with the deadly reptiles gradually reveal characteristics similar to the basic pillars of a healthy partnership. The adventure documentary Figures is not only a testament to how educational popular video content can be created today, but above all highlights the authenticity of a journey through nature, partnership and life.“Figures is a heartfelt adventure that is gripping for the wildlife enthusiast and romantics alike. It is a testament to love – love for wildlife, love for education, and love between two passionate individuals. At its core, this film is a real life, behind the scenes look into how professional wildlife filmmakers get the job done.”Source: https://figuresfilm.com/about

Ritual dances, incantations and fetishes in an associative sequence of mystical scenes reveal the roots of the Afro-Cuban minority in Bauta, Cuba, whose colonial past is guarded by a statue of a slave in chains. Tobacco smoke and magical ceremonies awaken the spirits of ancestors and invite them to fill the forgotten places of cultural memory of a young generation searching for their identity in a post-colonial era of political instability and religious syncretism.“O my flesh, make me a man who always asks.” - Frantz Fanon

Inspired by Junichiro Tanizaki's literary essay of the same name, the film is a visual ode to the shadow and its perceived marginality and necessity for living in the light. In traditional Japanese houses, there are spaces dedicated to the sun and places shrouded in the cover of darkness. The form of shadow is modelled by means of permeable materials, deliberate obstructions, or even candle flames, so different from Western mass-produced products. The transformation of shadows with the movement and intensity of light is analogized by the director to celluloid photography and film. Unlike modern digital technology, they are also subject to change as the passage of time affects their chemical stability. Without the shadows cast on the projection screen, we would not be able to watch this film either, reliving a feeling already familiar to prehistoric cavemen sitting around a campfire. “Fleeting shadows ebb and flow in a glistening half-light, an enchanted dreamlike state that reflects on our place in the world, the passage of time, and the very essence of life and its fragility.”Quote source: F3M

Czech painter and artist Otto Placht (1962) is sometimes called the painter of the jungle. His creative and private life is divided between Prague and Peru, where he draws inspiration from the depths of the Amazon rainforest, ayahuasca and the local people. The film shows his creative process in the interiors of Prague and a studio built right in the rainforest. Poetic shots of nature are interspersed with the harsh realities of the big city, in which Placht's passionate love life and complicated family life are also revealed. The artist's paintings have proven to be not only a fascination with and homage to immaculate nature, but also an environmental plea for its protection. “My material base is Europe, and my spiritual space is opened by the South American rainforest. One cannot exist without the other.” Source: Czech Radio

What is life? asks Max Kestner in the introduction to his expansive reflection on the greatest mysteries of the universe. He looks for answers that would shed light on why we exist at all in philosophy, biology and quantum physics. In addition to his curiosity, he is guided by an incident from Copenhagen Zoo that took place 10 years ago. At the time, its director had a healthy giraffe killed because it was no longer needed as part of an international breeding program. The fact that so many people around the world have expressed sympathy for the “unnecessary” animal suggests that we share much more with the world around us, including invisible microbes, than we admit, according to Kestner. “I could have made a story about how media works and how it [the story] exploded in the media but to me it was the scientific and philosophical questions that I felt were there at the time, but weren’t really answered.” — Max Kestner 

Fifty-five-year-old Hajar, who has spent her entire life in the nomadic Iranian tribe of Bakhtiari, is betrayed and disappointed by her closest family, who want to force her to settle down and peacefully live out her life in the city. Although the circumstances, including the patriarchal social system, increasing urbanization and climate change, are not in her favour, Hajar is not going to give up her flock of sheep or her nomadic freedom. In her extremely empathetic, partly personal documentary debut, director Marjan Khosravi creates a portrait of a strong woman who, even in the face of turbulent modernity, does not want to let herself be deprived of the most valuable things she has – memories, traditions, contact with nature and the joy of free movement.“I immediately figured out that Hajar and her personal story is the concept of my new film and I decided to make a film about her and all the other women like her: traditional women and their struggles with modern life. Their families always decide for them, yet they are never happy with these decisions. These women are not heard by anyone.” — Marjan KhosraviSource: Variety

Hard work, insecure earnings and a whole family in debt. These are the circumstances faced by gem prospectors in the abandoned mines of Myanmar. After mining was banned, the local population has been drawn to them, hand-picking through thousands of stones, eager to find the right one – and the better life it will bring.“Sometimes no matter how much you dig, you don’t find a thing. But one good gemstone can make you rich.”

Diego Revollo first had to go deaf to learn to listen. According to conventional medicine, the director's deafness was incurable until he met Ortiz Ramos, a Bolivian healer from the Kallawaya shamanic nation. According to their teachings, which are part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, urbanisation has severed man's connection with place, resulting in a rift between body and soul. Civilisation is sick and can only be cured by reconnecting with nature. The intoxicating details of the structures, the contemplatively ethnographic cinematography and the atmospheric soundtrack therapeutically return to matter, shapes, touch and the senses and restore the connection to our animal origins.“Perhaps for humans, healing is more akin to the ability to understand than to regenerate. To understand is to discover the deep meaning of something, to embrace it from all sides.”

Turkey's first “eco” hotel, Naturland Eco Park and Resort, opened in 1991 and operated until 2014. A hybrid of documentary, black satirical comedy and circus-style performance, the film builds on fictional voice-overs that depict the experiences of hotel guests and staff and the gradual decay of the once-pompous and now dilapidated abandoned complex, which was closed due to overwhelming debts and left virtually untouched. Strange Abandoned Deranged is a kaleidoscopic portrait of an ambivalent place that is full of faded colours, scratched walls and kitschy life-size animal sculptures. Like the site itself, which was once a premier tourist attraction and a haven for local politicians and royalty, the unfulfilled dream of a harmonious fusion of capitalism and ecology is increasingly unravelling, revealing an unpleasant reality that has been carefully hidden behind the walls of a man-made paradise. Both the absurdity and the controversy surrounding Naturland are symptomatic of Turkey's modern history.“Through its absurd voice, it crafts a circus-like panorama. Standing amidst abandoned state land with a history that echoes a mockumentary—filled with countless tragic incidents and boundless absurdities from Turkey's past—it becomes evident that to chase the controversial story of Naturland Eco Park is to journey through the last thirty years of a country.”

According to recent findings in astrophysics, the universe is structured as a four-dimensional web-like network. Yet similar structures are created by organisms many times smaller – known as slime mold. Can the parallel between the realms of biology and physics help us understand the mystery of our changing and intricate reality?“The cosmic web is part of the universe's large-scale structure. It is composed of dark matter, gas, and galaxies.”Source: Astronomy Magazine

The Bosnian town of Velika Kladuša is located near the Croatian border. Its inhabitants often come into contact with refugees from the Middle East and other even more distant places. Day and night, the camera observes the local forests and streets, capturing unbiasedly the clearing of civil war-era explosives, school lessons and collective efforts to face the consequences of the current conflicts. The layered soundtrack and the deliberate rhythm of the narrative, subordinate to the changing seasons, contribute to a slowly absorbing atmosphere of a place where past and present traumas collide alongside different cultures.“With my stubborn approach as a filmmaker, I wanted to grapple with this spot on earth, this spot of World Soul. Perhaps I‘d call it an attempt to ‘capture a floating truth’.” — Nicole Vögele Quote source: European Film Academy

Forest observation in negative colours captures the night life of wildlife out of the sight of man, but within his earshot. An anthropocentric element creeps into the natural still life in the form of noise from a nearby battle line. The night vision camera transforms the forest animals into fantasy creatures with glowing eyes and their home into a mythical space of love and war. Both, according to Jean-Luc Godard, exist side by side, like the quietly falling snow and bomb explosions, or the lovers' phone call and Putin's voice from hell. A poetic post-apocalyptic purgatory and homage to dead creators, it represents the eerie adjacency of life and death.“Jean-Luc Godard is dead. The only two subjects he ever dealt with were love and war, which were intertwined more firmly than he wished for them to be.”

Dao comes from Laos, but she has been living in France for many years. Set mostly in the Laotian jungle, the film is a dream and an idea of her return to her own essence. In the meditative rhythm of a slow human stride, we dive into a woman's memories of home, rituals and the family she had to leave behind.

The main character of this black-and-white impressionistic essay is a river, and the camera adopts its perspective. It flows through the landscape, sometimes peacefully, sometimes wildly, affecting the lives of animals and people alike. For some, it is a source of inspiration and a part of folk rituals.