Animus Animalis (istorija apie žmones, žvėris ir daiktus)

This intriguing film-poem’s subtitle sets the stage: it’s less about animals than humans’ relationships with them, especially when transformed into objects. Starting her essay with an impressive time lapse of a decomposing rodent, Aiste Žegulyte next turns her attention to scenes in which animals’ deaths fail to follow their natural course, thanks to human intervention. Taxidermists, hunters, deer ranchers and employees at a natural history museum work to create imitations of life, defy death and control nature. In the process the distinction between real and artificial is erased, to the point that the filmmaker inverts our typical anthropomorphism and puts the animals in the observer’s position.

Animus Animalis (A Story About People, Animals and Things)