Nikita Weber

Kersti Jan Werdal’s Test Piece critically examines the art of filmmaking as a synthesis of conceptual construction and intricate editing. Inspired by Straub-Huillet, the film deconstructs the fundamental elements of film, image, sound, and text, to create a space for reflection and thought rather than conventional narrative explanation or emotional immersion.

In a world shaped before her time, Kya is learning softer, slower, freer ways to exist. When her mother, Gigi, unexpectedly arrives, she brings with her the generational discord Kya has been quietly working through. Rather than resist her mother’s presence, Kya learns to move with it. She seeks refuge in healing rituals with a circle of women she trusts, guided by a powerful healer named Martha, whose ancient medicine, Rapé, loosens something long buried in Kya and begins to soothe her generational wound. Through tears and sacred smoke and the roar of the ocean, her journey is revealed. And she finds the courage to hold her mother’s story, her grandmother’s story and her great-grandmother’s story with tenderness.