Metempsychosis
2026 · 2m
Directed by Apoorva Dasari
Genres: experimental, fantasy, surrealism
Tones: contemplative, surreal, whimsical
What happens when a chicken experiences metempsychosis?
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A chicken experiencing soul transmigration is exactly the kind of absurdist premise that makes people uncomfortable because it refuses to stay in one genre—it's whimsical until it isn't, and that tonal instability is the whole point. Most scouts would dismiss this as quirky filler; it's actually subversive.
Dasari's treatment of metempsychosis shows formal awareness of how surrealist cinema plays with time and identity, though at 2 minutes the conceptual ambition occasionally outpaces the execution's ability to develop its philosophical layers with the rigor such a premise demands.
The film works because of one committed choice—treating the chicken's inner life with the same emotional weight and visual language as a human consciousness study—and that single decision transforms what could've been a gimmick into something genuinely affecting.