Entry 21-619 | Germany | 2019 | 75’ | Language: German | Subtitles: Estonian

Animals

Loomad

A birdcall-imitation-seminar, an animal-telepathy-hotline, a beauty contest for pedigree dogs. Wherever the film goes: animals are sorted, studied, and processed; and yet they remain enigmatic and absent. What's inside the animals? The closer they are examined, the less certainty remains. And as the animals increasingly disappoint, a melancholic perplexity sets in. The idea was to find an answer within the animal, but instead people lost a sense of themselves. Encounters in faux fur costumes offer a last hope for warmth and dissolution. A film that acts like a shimmering mirror, in which we painfully recognise ourselves.

Original title: Tiere

Details

Director
Jonas Spriestersbach
Cinematography
Jonas Spriestersbach
Editing
Ulrike Tortora
Composer
Elvis Presley
Producer
Nicole Leykauf
Production Company
Leykauf Film, ZDF, HFF
Contact of presenter / Director

Awards

Special Jury Prize
The film has a good sense of humor and irony. The story is well-developed, many-layered and metaphoric. Characters are amusing and at the same time, though at a different angle, you feel the deep melancholy of their life.

Best Editing
A story told with elegance, style and precision that keeps the viewer in its grip from the first shot to the last. The result is a truly unexpected film carried by a deep sense of irony. Humorous and tragic at once, it turns the mirror on humans’ alienation from other species and quite possibly themselves.

Film recommendations

Supporters

Lihula Gümnaasium · Lihula Raamatukogu · Lääneranna Noortekeskus