Gunda

Pig, chicken, cow. That is essentially what GUNDA is about, a documentary in black and white about those three animals. When we say pig, we’re referring to a species, and most people never come to see a pig (or a chicken or a cow) as an individual, certainly not when meeting them postmortem, packaged in a supermarket fridge. Victor Kossakovsky’s desire is to go beyond the level of species. He films animals (the humans here are off-camera) as individuals, and even gives his star, a monumental sow, a name: she’s called Gunda, and the whole film is to a certain extent about creating a “Gunda”, a strident manifesto against consumerist abstraction. Shooting took place on a farm in Denmark and the camerawork is a remarkable feat, since it is not easy to follow, say, a one-legged hen on her aimless adventures on the ground and in the thick of vegetation. GUNDA even contains something like a story, it goes beyond that eternal moment that is supposedly the realm of animals, while humans experience time. Look out for one of the most cruel plot points ever. (Bert Rebhandl)

Victor Kossakovsky: LOSEV (1988), BELOVY (1992), WEDNESDAY 19.07.1961 (1996), PAVEL AND LYALYA (1998, K), LOVED YOU ... (2000), HUSH! (2002), SVYATO (2005, K), VIVAN LAS ANTIPODAS! (2011), DEMONSTRATION (2013), VARICELLA (2015, K), AQUARELA (2018)