Apple Cider Vinegar

The stone the size of a nut that was removed from the director’s kidney is the true protagonist of APPLE CIDER VINEGAR, the latest work by Sofie Benoot, which is an exceptional example of the vitality of contemporary documentary cinema. Beautifully woven together with the mellow voice of Siân Phillips, disguised as TV documentary commentator, the film has an English detective, a Palestinian stone miner and a painter in Cape Verde take us on a journey without a clear beginning or end, a cinematic exploration that mirrors the marvellous complexity of our existence. The other protagonists of this playful study include rocks and minerals, silent witnesses of our existence and a repository of our planet’s secrets. Benoot doesn’t hesitate to enrich her tale with webcam shots of untamed wilderness and surgical images, composing a fresco about our place in history and meditating on the balance of nature and our ephemeral state. But besides the importance of the subject and the skill with which it is narrated, what really captivates in APPLE CIDER VINEGAR is the sheer pleasure of moving hand in hand with the narrator on an astonishing wander. (Rebecca De Pas)

In the presence of Sofie Benoot.

Sofie Benoot: FRONTERISMO (2007, K), BLUE MERIDIAN (2010), DESERT HAZE (2014), VICTORIA (2020, KO-REGIE)