Our resident Kanopy fan Henry shares some of his favourite films on Kanopy which feature the natural world, available to watch for free on our film streaming service Kanopy.
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Henry’s review:
The Alchemist Cookbook (18+) is a dark horror exploration of isolation and mental alienation amidst the “confines” of Sean’s caravan within Michigan forest. The film presents the mostly solitary protagonist (portrayed brilliantly by the main star Ty Hickson) as he descends further and further into esoteric alchemical experiments that potentially reflect his own mental distress.
It’s style really sets it apart even from other forest-bound indies, the colours, framing, and nonlinearity give a feeling of an almost nihilistic natural world that seems to lead Sean further into his alienation and paranoia.
It’s a film that places itself firmly outside of society so as to perhaps speak not to how frightening nature itself may be, but of how frightening it can be to witness our own inability to be at one with nature.
The Alchemist Cookbook
Young outcast Sean has isolated himself in a trailer in the woods with his cat Kaspar. When he turns from chemistry to black magic to crack nature’s secret, things go awry and he awakens something far more sinister and dangerous.
Nominated for the Prix du jury at the Champs-Élysées Film Festival. Nominated for the Grand Jury Award at the Fantastic Cinema Festival.
Hundreds of Beavers
Jean Kayak finds himself stranded in a surreal winter landscape with nothing but his dim wits to guide him.
Against a backdrop of ruthless elements and sinister creatures – all played by actors in full-sized mascot costumes – Kayak develops increasingly complex traps in order to win the hand of a mischievous lover.
A slapstick frostbitten battle between a drunken applejack salesman and diabolical beavers who stand between him and survival.
Enys Men
Shot on 16mm, Enys Men is a mind-bending Cornish folk horror set in 1973 that unfolds on an uninhabited island off the Cornish coast.
A wildlife volunteer’s (Mary Woodvine) daily observations of a rare flower take a dark turn into the strange and metaphysical, forcing both her and viewers to question what is real and what is nightmare.
Is the landscape not only alive, but sentient?
The Zookeeper
Jonah Ludovic is a custodian at a small municipal zoo. After a night of heavy shelling Ludovic arrives at his job to find the staff abandoning the zoo.
In the midst of a devastating civil war in an Eastern European country, he joins a skeleton crew that includes an elderly guard and a veterinarian.
Their purpose: to keep the animals alive until help arrives from an international zoological mission.
A Zed & Two Noughts
A car collides with a swan outside a zoo. Two women passengers die but the driver, Alba Bewick survives with a leg amputation.
Obsessed with the accident, the zoologist husbands of the dead women – twins Oliver and Oswald – become fascinated by the processes of decay and embark on an affair with the amputee.
As dead animals decompose to the playful rhythms of Michael Nyman, symmetry is elevated beyond obsession, and Sascha Vierny’s cinematography pays homage to Vermeer. Full of surprises and magnificent conundrums, Peter Greenaway’s third feature is as perversely comic and teasing as it is shocking.
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