Synopsis
The human identity has reached a point of crisis. As artificial intelligence expands exponentially, and the climate crisis becomes increasingly urgent beyond the point of no return, FREM is a unique and wildly experimental documentary that attempts to reflect
this feeling, presenting a view of nature that exists beyond typical human perceptions of reality.
The result of an extreme, isolated filming schedule on King George Island off the coast of Antarctica, FREM surveys this troubled yet breathtaking landscape with an unusual and wholly unsentimental approach. The investigative drone camera creeps across the icy
plains with an unusual sense of confusion and seemingly even caution. Diverse fragments of music and dialogue are interrupted by rushes and glitches, which, together with the esoteric camera work, produces a disturbing, philosophical reflection on the limits of anthropocentric thinking.
The prospect of imagining how a new, technological entity may perceive the world around us was a driving factor for the three-person team, but persisted as a technological challenge. However, in order to imagine our future in which homo sapiens have lost their
power and betrayed their influence, we must endeavour to see things differently. In Antarctica, humans are not the dominant player in nature, despite their appalling impact on the environment. It is instead artificial intelligence that has become the eyewitness to
Antarctica’s natural ecosystem, where even more radical changes will soon occur. FREM
puts you directly in that perspective.
A singular and radical mix of photography, experimental sound design and a foreboding and necessary narrative, Viera Čákanyová’s film offers no easy answers or soothing angles on the approaching environmental disaster. Instead, FREM presents a striking and sometimes uncomfortable reaction to the current wave of post-humanist thinking, a
haunting and futurist portrayal of one of the most beautiful yet extreme landscapes on earth.
"Making this film was an extreme experience, in every aspect, not only physical, since we shot in Antarctica. I had to think un-thinkable. Leave the prison of anthropomorphism behind. Stop being human." V. Čákanyová