2026
Short film
Short film
Project was made as part of Science New Wave Luminary Residency Paris.
Synopsis:
A crab carcass on the shore of the Baltic Sea presents a mystery, compelling us to place the creature within a story we can understand. We feel the urge to categorize, to determine its purpose, unsettled by its otherness. But in our rush to assign meaning, we almost forget to consider the crab’s own desires. We might even assign too much malignant agency to its instinctual behaviour.
Inspired by the surrealist game of "exquisite corpse," the film pieces together the story of a Harris mud crab who is a new species in these waters since 2011. This lone crab becomes an entry point into a layered story of “invasive species”, their role in disrupted ecosystems, and the questions they raise about human values in a world of constant environmental flux.
A shape of a crab emerges from the stony beach, standing out from the usual pattern of the rocks. An 8-legged creature, unknown to these waters until very recently. It grabs your attention, it grabs the attention of the public. There’s a pattern here: something foreign, something outside, therefore it must be evil. A language emerges, speaking of invasion and destruction that this creature is said to bring. But are these thoughts more a projection of the human mind than the reality of the crab?