Synopsis

When a juvenile giraffe named Marius was euthanized by the Copenhagen Zoo a decade ago, the decision sparked an international outcry. But filmmaker Max Kestner was more intrigued than flabbergasted, and uses the provocative incident as a launching pad for this wry and provocative essay film about life, death, biology, genetics, human and animal consciousness, and, well, just about everything else.

Jumping around the planet for a plethora of fascinating interviews — including Italian microbiologist Donato Giovannelli and Oxford veterinarian Charles Foster, who lives as a wolf to better understand them — the film explores the nature of life at a brisk pace, mixing the massive and the microscopic with the existential and the scientific using the lightest of touches. (The Flaming Lips’ “Do You Realize?” makes for a memorable framing device.) Fascinating and funny, Life and Other Problems delves into the quandaries of existence while offering no single solution.

Synopsis

Karoline, a pregnant factory worker living in post-WW1 Copenhagen, is struggling to make ends meet. Fearing her unborn child will be doomed to a life of poverty and hardship, she searches for a solution. By chance (or is it fate?) she meets Dagmar, a friendly woman who runs an illegal adoption agency hidden behind the facade of a candy store. Seeing a way out, Karoline accepts a job as a wet nurse. But she slowly begins to realize that things are not what they seem. Director Magnus von Horn, helmer of the Gold Hugo-winning Sweat, returns to the Festival with this expressive, nightmarish, Gothic fairytale. Sublime black and white photography, long shadows, and grimy streets conjure a striking, if grim, vision of early 20th century Copenhagen that hides dark secrets and unsettling truths.