Screenings

Synopsis

Cape Verde is the literal and metaphorical epicenter of our world spinning out of control. It is the place where some of the most powerful hurricanes in the world are born. It’s on these dry and wind-blown islands that the filmmakers find humans and animals alike who tell a universal story of the will to live.
The hurricanes are caused by the Coriolis Effect: the earth’s rotation bends and deflects trade winds running between the islands, turning them into storms. The effect is increased by global warming and the rise of sea temperatures, causing the hurricanes to become more devastating.
Instead of despair, the filmmakers turn to those trying to help. A naturalist cares for sea turtles maimed by fishing nets. Young environmental volunteers clean up garbage drifting endlessly from the sea, in a Sisyphean labor. But humans are not the focus of this lyrical and visually stunning film. Here, all living beings are equally important, their lives sacred. This political and aesthetic approach could show us a way out of our predicament, if only we could leave our anthropomorphic hubris behind us…

Director

Petr Lom

Biography

Petr Lom was born in Prague, Czech Republic, and grew up in Canada. He is now based in the Netherlands. He received his PhD in Political Philosophy from Harvard University and was an Associate Professor of Human Rights and Philosophy at George Soros’ Central European University. In 2003, he left academia to become an independent documentary director and producer specialising in human rights films.
His award-winning films have been broadcast in over thirty countries and screened at more than two hundred and fifty film festivals around the world, including Sundance and Berlinale. He won the Nuremberg International Human Rights Film Award with BRIDE KIDNAPPING IN KYRGYZSTAN in 2005.

Filmography

Selection: Birde Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan (2004, NIHRFF 2005), On a Tightrope (2007, NIHRFF 2007), Letters to the President (2009, NIHRFF 2009), Back to the Square (2012, NIHRFF 2013), Burma Storybook (2017), Letter to San Zaw Htway (2021), I Am the River, the River Is Me (2024), The Coriolis Effect (2025)