Anja Dornieden Juan David Gonzales Monroy
Although aurochs, the ancestors of today’s cattle,
died out in the 17th century, some people have
tried to resurrect these legendary, prestigious
beasts. Lutz Heck, a German zoologist and friend
of Hermann Göring with whom he shared a love
of hunting and the dream to repopulate Europe’s
forests with these horned creatures, tried to do
so. Using manipulated photos, sliding intertitles
onto transparencies in a documentary approach
whose seriousness is the guarantee of a tacit
but profound critical irony, the meticulous
filmmaking duo takes us through the illustrated
works of this idiosyncratic savant. But they also
introduce us to some modern-day scientists
from the Netherlands who share a similar dream.
A meditation on celluloid (another endangered
species) about survival, this film, to the delight
of viewers, never shies away from the (albeit
ghostly) powers of beauty. (Jean-Pierre Rehm)