Kumu Documentary: XXXVII Pärnu Film Festival presents. !AITSA
Dir Dane Dodds
Denmark, South Africa 2023, 89 min
English and Afrikaans, with English and Estonian subtitles
Festival’s Grand Prize
Introduction by Mark Soosaar
The Karoo is a vast desert area in South Africa the size of Germany. It is home to dinosaur fossils and large mysterious rocks with traces of our most ancient ancestors. The area is so pristine that in 2018 the construction of a giant radio telescope began here because there was no electronic noise to interfere with the telescope. It will consist of hundreds of huge white parabolic antennae and be so powerful it will be almost divine, looking back in time to when the first galaxies formed and perhaps enabling modern scientists to understand the origins of the universe. But what is it doing to the indigenous people who have inhabited the area since time immemorial and are deeply connected to the pristine land? And how does modern science relate to their deep knowledge of the place and its history? The director, Dane Dodds, listens to everyone in a near-cosmic tale and in a grand cinematic format of what happens when ancient spiritual knowledge and high-tech research must be united in finding meaning in the infinite darkness that surrounds us all.
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