Elise Florenty & Marcel Türkowsky
France, Mexico | 2022 | 71 min
World premiere
Languages : Spanish, Japanese, German
Subtitles : French, English
Spring 2020: in Mexico City, a group of friends get together to rehearse a play. They gradually find themselves connected to the history of the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán valley, home to the world’s largest cactus forest. Somewhere between a phantasmagorical fiction and a historical investigation, Ollin Blood challenges our relationship with nature and all its contradictions.
With Ollin Blood, artist duo Elise Florenty and Marcel Türkowsky continue their investigation into our relationship with the non-human. Set against the backdrop of the pandemic, the film tells the story of three friends in Mexico City who find themselves connected with the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán valley, home to the biggest cactus forest in the world. Through a refined work of investigation that brings together elements of history – distant only in appearance – we discover that this valley has been the scene of savage exploitation and colonisation. In a spellbinding blend of documented research and fiction, Ollin Blood unites three continents and different epochs in an attempt to question our paradoxical relationship with nature. Each of the majestic cactuses of the forest thus becomes a symbol of cultural identity and globalised power structures. In a phantasmagorical atmosphere, haunted by contrasts, Ollin Blood takes us into a dream-like state where history and myth blur in a unique quest for knowledge.
Rebecca De Pas
