“Sounds of Insects” wins European Film Award
Sound of Insects: Record of a Mummy by Swiss director Peter Liechti has been named Best Documentary by the European Film Academy.
The film, inspired by a true story, tells of the mummified corpse of a 40-year-old man discovered by a hunter in one of the most remote parts of the country. The dead man’s detailed notes reveal that he actually committed suicide through self-imposed starvation the previous summer.
With no firsthand evidence of the actual suicide in question, the film relies instead on the text of Japanese author Shimada Masahiko’s novella Until I Am a Mummy. These reflections are delivered as a voice-over.
The academy praised the “challenging” film for the “skilful application of creating in a minimalist manner an extraordinarily visual story between life and death”.
The ceremony for the 22nd European Film Awards will take place in the German city of Bochum on December 12.
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