Gunda
directed by Viktor Kossakovsky, Norway / USA 2020, 93'
The eponymous pig, Gunda, lives on a farm and has just become a mother to a litter of piglets. Kossakovsky’s camera closely observes their first weeks: clumsy climbs up their mother’s body to reach the milk-filled teat, scuffles at breakfast and joyful mud baths. The camera is set on the animals’ eye level, allowing us to experience the perspective of the piglets and the sow, and sometimes of cows and chickens also filmed by Kossakovsky. A one-legged rooster looking longingly outside the yard fence, a sluggish piglet who is always behind, a young cow smelling the leaves of a young birch – each of the beings has its character and personality, as well as a fascinating story. A beautifully filmed, black-and-white Gunda is an intimate encounter with creatures living right next to us.
[based on the distributor’s materials]
