Peace with Seals

Mir stuleni

(Czech Republic, Italy, 2008, 86 mins)

35mm

North American Premiere

PRODS: Jitka Maxova, Helena Machova, Marie Malinova
SCR: Ferdinand Pitrosu
CAM: Jakub Halousek, Emanuele Coppola
ED: Adam Brothánek
MUS: Beethoven

Part travelogue, part science-fiction epic, part environmental critique, Miloslav Novák's wonderfully idiosyncratic film defies definition. A serendipitous encounter with a tourist brochure led the director to the discovery of the Mediterranean monk seal, the most endangered mammal in Europe. Novák set out in search of a face-to-face encounter with this elusive creature, undeterred by their exceptional rareness. (Some estimates put the remaining wild seal population at little more than 400 animals.) Humans have been steadily pushing the seal out of its traditional territory since the time of Homer, but this is probably the least of their crimes.

With a little help from an Italian director (who filmed one of the few remaining monk seals in 1992) and a Czech zoologist, the director combs the beaches and caves of the Mediterranean. Along the way, a number of other stories emerge, including a 98-year-old seal hunter's birthday party, a museum visit (where something appears to be going on between two scientists) and the curious connection between a seal pup and Fellini's La Dolce Vita. Peopled with slippery bits of animation, excerpts from Karel Capek's bizarre novel War of the Newts and vaguely zoological footage of other basking mammals, namely sunbathers, Peace with Seals reverses the "perceived" natural order of things. In so doing the film poses profound questions about the relationship between animals and people. The cost of our anthropocentric worldview has unforeseen consequences, not the least of which is a none-too subtle loss of humanity.

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