Trekking across 24,700 hectares of forest to visit remote ice-blue lakes, Still Life pits reality against fiction; snowy white owls juxtaposed with taxidermy hares, stunned by flood lights in the dead of night. 

Shot in Harz National Park, Germany, filmmakers Florian Fischer and Johannes Krell were inspired by the much-loved nature documentary format, hunting out theatrical dioramas of idealistic replicas found in natural history museums. “The Blauer See is a disused lime works where a lake accrues every spring,” say directors Fischer and Krell, of their most surprising discovery. “Through the limestone the water looks extremely artificial, almost as if it was in the Caribbean, but the surrounding trees make it a European setting. We were looking for that kind of contrast.” 

The languorously unfolding short creates a twilight zone of mimicry and alternate Darwinism. “Nature documentaries often try to be authentic and real, but they’re created out of complex staged settings where the viewer feels unnoticed by the animals,” say the cinematic explorers. “We broke this convention by making animals and nature counterparts, so not only are we looking at nature—it’s looking back at us.” 

Still Life screens on November 26 at the Bio Central and December 3 at Kino Scala in the Czech Republic.

Maksymilian Fus Mickiewicz is the Editor of T-R-E-M-O-R-S.