GUNDA

Every year, humans slaughter about 70 billion livestock. Russian filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky lets the camera linger on one of these animals: the sow, Gunda. Does she know her fate? What is she thinking? What does she think of us? Using black-and-white cinematography and an ambient soundscape of the farm’s natural noises, GUNDA invites the audience to slow down and experience life as its subjects do. From the sow Gunda and her litter of piglets, to a herd of cows, and eventually to a scene-stealing, one-legged chicken, Kossakovsky and co-cinematographer Egil Håskjold Larsen observe the animals as they are rarely seen: up-close and filled with personality. With GUNDA, Kossakovsky movingly recalibrates our moral universe, reminding us of the inherent value of life and the mystery of all animal consciousness, including our own.