Ecosystems

One of the central social changes of recent decades consists of the development of our environmental consciousness. Reflections on the causes of human superiority over other living organisms, the clash of human interests with the interests of nature, and climate change impacts are thematically united in nine films in the now-traditional section focused on the coexistence of humans and the Earth.

Dva muži stojí v krajině. Mladší muž v popředí drží v ruce ptačí pero, které si oba prohlíží.

The infamous case of the killing of a male giraffe in a Danish zoo led the director of Life and Other Problems to ponder over where compassion for living nature begins and ends. An ethical theme is also developed in a completely new genre of films about the rights of rivers, which we reflect on for the first time through the film I Am the River, the River Is Me. A five-day cruise on New Zealand’s Whanganui, which was the first river to gain the status of a living entity with its own rights, introduces us to the history of the indigenous people, the consequences of colonisation, and the effort to restore the health and magical power of this sacred Māori river. 

While the young funeral director in the film Compost Me promotes an eco-harmonic relationship with nature, the live action film The Wolves Always Come at Night has no illusions about the balance. The protagonists are Mongolian nomads who are irretrievably losing their source of subsistence because of extreme weather events.  

It is by no means an exaggeration to call The Battle of Laikipia a climatic thriller. The worst drought in forty years transforms the until-now harmonic co-existence of Kenyan herders and farmers into a life-and-death struggle. The audience is reminded of the pitfalls of energy poverty in Rising Up at Night, a film of extraordinary visual quality. The inhabitants of the DR Congo’s capital Kinshasa find themselves in absolute darkness for a large part of the year due to massive flooding. This provides a favourable environment for crime and accidents, but at the same time it also initiates more cohesive community life. 

Films in category Ecosystems

Other Thematic Categories

Bývalá slovenská prezidentka sedí v kanceláři za svým stolem.

Thematic Film Category

The Slovak Journey

The disturbing political developments in our neighbour to the east prompted us to look deeper into how the distinctive “Slovak journey” is reflected. Eight selected films by Slovak directors cover a wide range of topics related to current events – from increasing manifestations of xenophobia, including a longitudinal record of the Slovaks’ relationship with their cultural heritage, to the exposure of mafia practices at the highest political levels.