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Films Verde Giffoni

HOLGUT

The Siberian permafrost is melting. Ancient bones rise up from the ground and wild animals seem to have disappeared. Three Yakutians venture into the vast wilderness on different quests. Villager Roman and city boy Kyym hunt for a rare reindeer while, not so far away, scientist Semyon scourges the permafrost for a viable mammoth cell, which he needs to clone the extinct animal. In the midst of an ongoing mass-extinction of fauna and flora and at the dawn of de-extinction, a contemporary myth unfolds. While Roman, Kyym and Semyon close in on their goals, both the frozen earth that they walk on and reality itself melt into another state. HOLGUT boldly combines elements of fiction and documentary, science fiction seems to become reality and reality seems to become myth.

Original Title HOLGUT
Category Out of competition
Section In Society & Out of Society
Tipology Documentary, Feature Film
Duration 75'
Production Year 2021
Nationality Belgium
Directed by Liesbeth De Ceulaer
Co-directors Flo Flamme (assistant)
Director of photography Jonathan Wannyn
Editor Guillaume Graux
Sound Gert Verboven
Produced by Minds Meet & Stempel
Production Minds Meet (Belgium)

 

Liesbeth de CeulaerLiesbeth de Ceulaer
Liesbeth De Ceulaer is a Belgian independent filmmaker based in Brussels, whose films explore the tense and complex relationship between man and his environment. These cinematic explorations lead us into captivating worlds, in which documentary and fiction are in continuous exchange. THE BEST ACT ON THE ISLE (2008) and BEHIND THE REDWOOD CURTAIN (2013) have been shown on film festivals such as Docville (BE, Jury Prize Best Belgian Documentary), Hamptons International Film Festival (USA), Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival (USA), GIFF (KOR), Ânûû-rû Âboro – Festival International du Cinéma du Peuple (NC). Her most recent feature VICTORIA won Caligari Award in Berlin IFF 2020. Victoria was awarded with the Open City Award (London), the Special Mention in Beldocs, the TVCine Award in Indie Lisboa and as Best Belgian film in Docville 2020.

Director’s statement

“Climate change and the 6th mass extinction are upon us: temperatures and water levels are rising, land is crumbling and species are going extinct at a rapid rate. HOLGUT stems from these tragic events and from the defining human influence lying within.

How to survive and grasp this incredibly fast-changing world, one that often seems to be heading for doom?

We are part of the natural world. When we lose parts of this world, we lose parts of ourselves. Our stories get punctured, they become incomplete and we can get lost.

The mammoth’s tale of extinction reveals a fascinating narrative that unravels over millennia and has an ending still unknown. I wonder how we will look back at this critical moment hundreds of years from now.”