“Gunda”, the sensation of last year’s festival in Berlin, is more than a film. It is an intimate encounter with the beings who live next to us. It is an expression of solidarity with animals, a testimony of care, a request for forgiveness, a discreet appeal to our sensitivity. And finally, pure cinema, a healing elixir, says director Paul Thomas Anderson, delighted with Kossakowski’s work. The title pig Gunda lives on a farm and has just become the mother of a group of piglets. Kossakowski’s camera observes the first weeks of their lives up close: awkward climbs over the mighty mother’s body to reach for the full milk of the nipple; scuffles at breakfast and joyful taplanin in the mud. The camera works at the level of animal eyes, so we also take the perspective of piglets and their mothers, and with time also cows and chickens, which Kossakowski also films.

A one-legged rooster looking longingly at the yard fence, a piglet – a chap that always stays behind, a cow sniffing the leaves of a young birch – each of the creatures shown here has its own character and temperament; its fascinating story. Beautifully filmed, black and white “Gunda” only seemingly does without dialogue.

The viewer hears grunts and squeaks all the time, crows and chirps, buzzing and panting. The whole world is constantly talking to each other, and the unique work of Kossakowski allows us to hear it. As the film’s executive producer, actor Joaquin Phoenix points out, “Gunda” breaks down barriers that separate us from other genres. And he adds that this film is a deep spiritual experience for him, a meditation on existence.