“Astonishing” Documentary Film Follows The Life of a Pig and Her Piglets
The New York Times leads rave reviews for the mesmerizing film that reveals the life and experiences of a mother pig and her newly-born piglets as they adjust to the big world around them.
Credit: Gunda
A new documentary movie about the life of a pig and her piglets is wowing critics, and inspiring viewers around the world to take another look at the complex and emotional lives that animals lead.
Documentary film Gunda, follows the life of a mother sow on an idyllic farm shortly after she has given birth to her brood of newborn piglets.
Through the use of 360° cameras that are eye-level with the animals, the film captures the emotions, intelligence and beauty of life as a pig. And Gunda’s joined by other wonderful animals, including a pair of ingenious cows, and a scene-stealing, one-legged chicken.
The New York Times has described the film as an “astonishing” documentary, that’s “sublimely beautiful and profoundly moving”, while Variety called Gunda’s story “captivating”.
The power behind Gunda’s story is that it lets the viewer reflect and really “look” at animals. As the review by The New York Times explains:
"It is, for instance, awfully easy to eat meat; in the developed world, it requires little thought, effort or money. It’s more difficult and certainly more inconvenient to think about the violence inherent in its production, including the environmental devastation. And so, cut off from the natural world, we largely classify animals as pets or meat."
But in its immersive display of the intimacies and intricacies of animal life, Gunda encourages the viewer to reconsider what we think of when we think of “animals” - and perhaps what we think of when we think of “meat”.
“Gunda is a mesmerizing perspective on sentience within animal species, normally - and perhaps purposely - hidden from our view”, says the film’s executive producer, Joaquin Phoenix. The Joker star explains,
“Displays of pride and reverence, amusement and bliss at a pig’s inquisitive young; her panic, despair and utter defeat in the face of cruel trickery, are validations of just how similarly all species react and cope with events in our respective lives. Director Victor Kossakovsky has crafted a visceral meditation on existence that transcends the normal barriers that separate species. It is a film of profound importance and artistry.”
Meanwhile the acclaimed director behind the likes of There Will Be Blood and Phantom Thread, Paul Thomas Anderson, described Gunda as “pure cinema” - “it’s what we should all aspire to as filmmakers and audiences - pictures and sound put together to tell a powerful and profound story without rush. It’s jaw dropping images and sound put together with the best ensemble cast and you have something more like a potion than a movie.”
The film is available to stream online in the US via virtual cinema Neon, ahead of a theatrical release in cinemas next year.
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The footage was reportedly recorded at Marshall BioResources in North Rose, New York, where up to 22,000 dogs - mostly beagles - are being bred for animal experimentation.