(oryg. On behalf of the living)
reż. Ton Otto, Christian Suhr, Gary Kildea
Dania, 2023, 105′
An anthropologist, wanting to better understand a world where the spirits of the dead are alive and active, decides to experiment with faith. Ton Otto first came to Baluan Island in Papua New Guinea as a PhD student to learn about the local culture through participation. His research project has been going on for years and some of the islanders say he is already ready for ritual contact with his late adoptive father from Baluan. His birth father from Maastricht, a devout Catholic, encourages him to participate sincerely in these rituals, explaining that ‘miracles do happen’, but his mother remains sceptical. Christian Suhr, who has been working with Ton for years on ethnographic films, is also not entirely convinced. We can follow their struggles regarding the approach to filmmaking on screen. Ton’s adoptive sisters Ninou and Asap want to support him in reaching their father on the other side. Pwanou’s brother, on the contrary, does not join in because he believes that the Bible forbids the summoning of spirits. It all adds up to a complex, cross-cultural film essay on the human impulse to engage with supernatural phenomena.
Ton Otto, a Dutch national, is Professor of Anthropology at Aarhus University in Denmark and James Cook University in Australia. He has conducted long-term ethnographic fieldwork in Papua New Guinea and has published extensively on issues of social and cultural change, with a particular focus on the relationship between causality, religion and historicity. Since the beginning of his fieldwork, he has used audiovisual media, which has resulted in a number of exhibition and film productions, including the award-winning film ‘Ngat is dead’ (2009, with Christian Suhr and Steffen Dalsgaard) and ‘Unity through Culture’ (2011, with Christian Suhr).
Christian Suhr is a filmmaker and professor of anthropology at Aarhus University. His research has focused on the experience of spirit possession, mental illness, religious healing and the potential of using film to bring the unseen dimensions of human life closer. He is the director and author of the award-winning film and book ‘Descending with angels’ (MUP 2019, www.descendingwithangels.com).
Gary Kildea is an Australian documentary filmmaker who has also lived and worked in Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and the UK. He specialises in observational and ethnographic approaches and often collaborates with anthropologists on film projects. He works as a lecturer in documentary film at the Australian National University in Canberra and at the University of Tromsø in Norway.