Humans have always been an egomaniac that had the will to dominate, take no forfeit, and become masters of anything around them. Ecological conservation may be an attempt by humans to protect their environment. But, is it really a sincere effort to protect the environment, or is it just a way to preserve nature so that it can be reproduced, cultivated, and exploited?
On a surgical table, a wild boar named Rasputin is being operated on after being attacked by a wolf. Crowding him, a doctor, a nurse and a hunter are talking about him. There are several different visions of conservation being discussed in the room. The mission of saving wildlife that coexist with humans is urgent for ecological sustainability. However, the soaring population of wildlife, especially wild boars, has made them pests to humans.
L’Ombra di Rasputin (Pietro Francesco Pingitore, 2022) seeks to open our eyes to ecological facts through Rasputin. Rasputin was forcibly taken from his mother when he was a cub and deemed too savage to live with humans. However, he can no longer live in the wild because he has become accustomed to living with humans. He has been culture shocked by his natural habitat.
Nature seems to be just an object in a man-made ecological infrastructure. Large tracts of land that were previously wildlife habitats are slowly being cleared for industrial farming. Therefore, overpopulated wild animals that interfere with agricultural plots are considered pests and are free to be killed. This contradicts the vision of maintaining ecosystems and ecological conservation. Rescuing wild animals that have been attacked by beasts or hit by vehicles juxtaposes with hunting wild animals on farmland. All of them are anomalous in the ecological infrastructure created by humans themselves.
In L’Ombra di Rasputin (2022), man becomes an object of anomaly. The desire to live with nature is a biased wishful thinking amidst the roar of various interests. They can control the ecology as they wish, making it seem as if conservation is a tool to control human interests. Humans even use animals as objects to train their senses in the wild.
See the specter of Rasputin and the conversations about him in the documentary L’Ombra di Rasputin (2022)! This film is selected in Perspektif Festival Film Dokumenter 2023. (Ahmad Radhitya Alam) (Vanis)
Film Details
L’Ombra di Rasputin
Pietro Francesco Pingitore | 27 Min | 2022 | Italy | Color | 17+
Screening Schedule
12.05 | Gedung ex Bioskop Permata | 17.00 WIB
12.08 | Bioskop Sonobudoyo | 13.00 WIB
