Hearth (2019)

The film is about our relationship with nature and our attention to detail. It is a suggestive meditation without narrative and its movements convey a dance without dancers. The film was conceived in the Kohtla-Järve area while trying to make another documentary that wouldn’t take off. The fire in the beginning was an accidental key that opened the world of elements to me and inspired me to make this film. The film is a wish or a prayer that i want to communicate so that anyone who sees it could slow down and catch a glimpse of a meditative state of mind and an appreciation for things as they are. Matsuo Basho was one of the greatest haiku poets who knew how to depict nature and in a few lines making it alive, he was also an inspiration while making the film and the film uses symbolism popular in Japanese poetry such as the moon. Usually in movies the nature is a backdrop for human events, but this division is artificial. Nature has a characteristic and a story of its own but in our anthropocentric worldview we have lost this skill and as a result we are now facing a global environmental catastrophe that’s roar can no longer be ignored. Having a relationship with nature is crucial for our survival and for the understanding of ourselves as well.