Animals

A birdcall-imitation-seminar, an animal-telepathy-hotline, a beauty contest for pedigree dogs. Wherever the film goes: animals are sorted, studied, and processed; and yet they remain enigmatic and absent. What's inside the animals? The closer they are examined, the less certainty remains. And as the animals increasingly disappoint, a melancholic perplexity sets in. The idea was to find an answer within the animal, but instead people lost a sense of themselves. Encounters in faux fur costumes offer a last hope for warmth and dissolution. A film that acts like a shimmering mirror, in which we painfully recognise ourselves.

  • Jonas Spriestersbach
    Director
  • Jonas Spriestersbach
    Writer
  • Nicole Leykauf
    Producer
  • Jonas Spriestersbach
    Cinematography
  • Ulrike Tortora
    Editing
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 15 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    March 21, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    175,000 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Germany
  • Country of Filming:
    Germany
  • Language:
    German
  • Shooting Format:
    4K Video
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1:1,85
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes
  • Vision du Reel
    Nyon
    Switzerland
    April 11, 2019
    World premiere
    Competition
  • Dok.fest Munich
    Munich
    Germany
    May 11, 2019
    German Premiere
    In competition
  • Filmfest Bremen
    Bremen
    Germany
    September 19, 2019
    Winner most innovative film
  • Split International Festival of new Film
    Split
    Croatia
    September 18, 2019
    Croatian Premiere
    In Competition
  • Inconvenient Films
    Vilnius
    Lithuania
    October 10, 2019
    Lithuanian Premiere
  • London International Documentary Film Festival
    London
    United Kingdom
    December 1, 2019
Distribution Information
  • Leykauf Film GmbH & Co Kg
    Country: Germany
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Jonas Spriestersbach

Jonas Spriestersbach was born in 1982 in Hamburg. He studied psychology and art history before attending the university of arts
in Kassel to study visual communications. From 2008 on he specified in cinematography at the university of film and television in Munich. As a cinematographer he has shot more than 20 short and some feature-lenght films since then. Since 2016 he is directing his own films. ANIMALS is his first feature.

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