WILD SUMMON
2023 · 14m · UK
Directed by Karni Arieli, Saul Freed
Genres: animation, documentary
Tones: melancholic, provocative, surreal
A faux natural-history documentary follows the life cycle of a female salmon, rendered in human form as a free diver, as she migrates through a world of predators, pollution, and overfishing.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Narrated by Marianne Faithfull, it transforms the salmon's life cycle into a lament for a world we are destroying, frame by meticulous frame.
A salmon as a free diver narrated by Marianne Faithfull is exactly the kind of "high-concept eco-fable" festival juries trip over themselves to garland. I'll grant it the craft; I won't pretend the conceit isn't a cocktail-napkin idea wearing a Cannes lanyard.
Palme d'Or nominated, Oscar shortlisted, BAFTA nominated — Karni & Saul rendering a salmon's life cycle as a human free diver with Marianne Faithfull narrating. Fourteen minutes that earns every accolade I'm seeing.
Festivals
- Cannes Film Festival 2023, Nominated: Palme d'Or
- 96th Academy Awards 2024, Shortlisted