The Trouble with Nature
Illum Jacobi / DK, 2020 / 95 min.
Edmund Burke, the father of conservatism, also fathered the sublime: an experience which makes you tremble with fear and pleasure, in awe of nature’s grand scale. In this road movie Burke – anything but an outdoorsman – hikes through the overwhelming Alps.
Rampant debt and a significant midlife crisis send philosopher Edmund Burke (Antony Langdon) fleeing from London to embark on an expedition through the French Alps. He brings along a servant on loan from his brother's plantation in the West Indies, a young indigenous woman named Awak (Nathalia Acevedo from Post Tenebras Lux). Together they set out to discover the sublime in this 18th-century road movie. Ill-equipped for the outdoor life, Burke whinges the days away while Awak carries all their supplies and makes sure his face is perpetually powdered.
With ample snark and a masterful sense of natural light, Jacobi, acting as both cinematographer and director, constructs each scene of his debut feature with a sense of humour and a delicate frame. Will Burke find a fitting subject for his philosophical inquiry in the immensity of Mother Nature's beauty? Or will the natural world become his master in the end? (IFFR)
This is part of
Details
Director
Illum Jacobi
Production year
2020
Country
DK
Original title
The Trouble with Nature
Length
95 min.
Language
English
Format
DCP
Part of
Cinema Ecologica
Much in life is uncertain, but one thing is sure: climate change. Cinema Ecologica focuses on how film directors depict the relationship between humanity and the earth: from nail-biting disaster films to artistic meditations, from romantic nature experiences to astounding science fiction.
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