Maddi Barber

The wolf no longer inhabits the land that once formed part of its territory, and only through its outlines can we get closer to it; remnants of wolf traps, predator urine imported from the US, a dung-hill used to feed scavenger birds and archers that shoot at replicas of animals. Reserve constructs a story about the fragile balance of a territory after the disappearance of the predator, where the complex co-existence between humans and non-humans presents a distinctly marked anthropogenic ecosystem.

Almost two decades ago, the Itoiz dam flooded seven villages and three natural reserves on the Pyrenean hillside in Navarra. The ecologist group Solidari@s con Itoiz registered the fight against its construction. Today, those who were there dream of the land lying beneath the water on video. Their voices and gestures come together to tell the tale of an individual and collective mourning still suffered today.

On January 24th, 1954, Mamaddi, aged 22, took a boat from Le Havre to New York. But her journey began earlier in her hometown movie theater, with images coming off the screen and never disappearing: a beautiful Cadillac, a young woman, the blue sky.

The arrival of two Slovenian bears in the Pyrenees of Navarre alters their balance. The bear has been a natural inhabitant of the Pyrenees for a million years. However, its disappearance led to the transformation of the area. The presence of these new visitors brings old conflicts back to the fore.

Pictures of a passing sunset. A book about frogs in one's hands. The face of a woman, reading. From the poem «Esta es la mano que cuida» («This is the hand that nurses») by veterinarian and writer María Sánchez, this film is built as a dyptich on the learning processes of our relationship with other species.

On October 4th, 2007 Arantza, the director of the film, was detained and taken to prison. She remembers a few things about those days: endlessly walking around the prison exercise yard, swimming competitions, Rasha's prison journey... After 918 nights locked up, Arantza is set free. From then onwards, she recorded her memories and doubts, which are heard throughout the documentary as a kind of fragmented memoir.

In an attempt to reclaim pasture for their cattle, the inhabitants of an ecovillage in Navarre decide to cut down a pine grove planted as part of a state-funded reforesting initiative. In this fierce and sensory work, the filmmakers capture an adversarial process which uses deforestation techniques to transform a territory.

Entrails, a flock of sheep, one spring. The cooing of doves and songs hummed. Some vultures, bones, flowers and many hands. Hands which feed, milk, stroke, shear, film; hands that kill. Hands which inhabit the doubts and contradictions about using other species.