Short film We Bites Us, 17’25’’ (2023) tells the story of the parasitic inhabitations and monstrous mutations that a group of people undergo during an exhausting journey through the contemporary form of public institution. The film is a mixture of live action and animation.

Common… Public…Private… Bodily fluids and body parts seem to have life on their own, rebellious, foreign and unwilling. A group wanders through a monstrous shape-shifting reality; in the grey zone in between life and death, the present and the future, the human, cannibal, and cyborg existence.

Director’s Statement

The idea for the film stems from the experience of the post-communist generation faced with the resurgence of the extreme right. It is anchored in the moment of now, of which the past is still morphing. In the carnal coexistence of “former” people, in the uncontrollable and indecent growth of an unpredictable body, something is still missing. Something is out of place. This film also stems from a fascination with monstrous and parasitic relationships and power structures, mutations, shifts in positions. It is constructed through double/paradoxical paradigms. We worked with two cinematic devices, a cinematographer and a robot/camera, sometimes operated by gyroscopes, placed on an actor’s body. The idea of working with artificial intelligence was to allow a kind of minor perspective, a little lost “artificial stupidity” and clumsiness, instead of a dream of futuristic technoluxury.

Written and directed by Karolina Kucia, Produced by Danai Anagnostou (Kenno Filmi), Edited by Smaro Papaevangelou, Cinematography byJanina Witkowski, Sound Design by Lou Strömberg, Music by Elvin Brandhi, LT Leif,Robyn Anne Dawson and Air Max’97, Creative technology by Station of Commons.

Starring:Vishnu Vardhani Rajan, Esete Sutinen, Outi Condit, Roxana Sadvokassova, FjollaHoxha, Marié Grace Iradukunda.

Supported by: Kone Foundation, Finnish Cultual Foundation, Saastamoinen Foundation, ThePromotion Centre for Audiovisual Culture (AVEK), Omron Electronics Oy

“This film is like a punk song. Short, fast and intense; when it ends you are satisfied and dizzy,but then you want to see it again.”

“It’s like being taken for a ride in an asshole”.

We Bites Us is a portrait of the collectivity: complex, difficult, dark, but also joyful and unpredictable. It is full of hilarious humour, but it is not just a funny film. The image, the story and the apparatus of its making are precise, analytical, and constructive.