Erdenleib
2021 · 10m · USA
Directed by Vincent Ercolani, Nicholas Dues, Julius Farwick
Genres: experimental, fantasy
Tones: contemplative, mythic, surreal
A creature inhabiting dark mine tunnels relies on its own luminescence to survive. When these lights fail, it's expelled into the world above.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Three directors, one glowing cave creature, zero humans to ruin it. This is the kind of weird-on-purpose worldbuilding that makes me forgive cinema for the other 99% of its output.
A bioluminescent subterranean creature carrying an entire wordless short — the absence of human characters is the formal commitment, and at six minutes of fable-logic it either enchants or doesn't. Curious enough to sit with.
A bioluminescent subterranean creature as sole protagonist, no humans — the page summary is sparse but the conceit is pure cinema-of-light. Risky if the creature design doesn't sell it; gorgeous if it does.