Mechanical Animal is a performance film staged in three fluid chapters about physical and spiritual liberation. It is a collaboration between director Lucca Lutzky, musician Kieran Dowling, and features dancer and model Sonya Mohova.

The film’s lead is a classically trained ballet dancer who decided to break with tradition and set out to create her own style of dance. Unconstrained by pointe shoes and endless pirouettes, Mohova breaks down and rebuilds movement by creating majestic configurations with her body. This unbridled physical creativity makes Mohva the perfect person to embody the message and non-verbal narrative of Mechanical Animal.

Lutzky describes the film as “a corporeal search for liberation from the ever-narrowing mechanical world we have come to know today.” We live in an era of growing automation, where robotics, AI, and supercomputers exist to make our lives more efficient, precise, and coordinated. “The film begins with the more primal human stage and our inherent connection to nature,” says the director of the film’s motifs, “followed by an exploration of the feeling of becoming trapped in one’s self.”

Credits:

Directed by Lucca Lutzky
Scored by Kieran Dowling
Starring Sonya Mohova
Cinematography by Léo Schrepel
Produced by Lucca Lutzky & Kieran Dowling
Costume by Eline Hoyois
Editing by Lucca Lutzky
Colour by Jade de Brito
Drums by Dylan Thompson
Vocals by Annie Burnell & Camille Jansen