Les Rites de Passage

Summary

Small holes appear inside a spruce tree, left by bark beetles to lay their brood. The tiny openings reveal a forest plantation that was cultivated for economical purposes. As a result of climatic developments, the spruce population is in decline and creates now a breeding ground for future life forms. (1) Fossils form a planetary time window that exceeds the limits of human experience. 300 million year old petrified roots and trees, preserved by the ash fall of a volcano, appear as silent witnesses to the transformation of things. (2) A burial and ritual site was built around 7000 years ago for observing the sky and aligned with the light axis of the winter and summer solstice. Performative sequences of a light figure enter into an exchange with the possible stories of the place. (3) The film forms an alliance of human and non-human, planetary and spiritual history, which is in a permanent state of becoming and passing.

Source: German Films Service & Marketing GmbH