Synopsis : Rampant debt and a significant midlife crisis send philosopher Edmund Burke (Antony Langdon) fleeing from London to embark on an expedition through the French Alps. He brings along a servant on loan from his brother's plantation in the West Indies, a young indigenous woman named Awak (Nathalia Acevedo from Post Tenebras Lux). Together they set out to discover the sublime in this 18th-century road movie. Ill-equipped for the outdoor life, Burke whinges the days away while Awak carries all their supplies and makes sure his face is perpetually powdered. With ample snark and a masterful sense of natural light, Jacobi, acting as both cinematographer and director, constructs each scene of his debut feature with a sense of humour and a delicate frame. Will Burke find a fitting subject for his philosophical inquiry in the immensity of Mother Nature's beauty? Or will the natural world become his master in the end?
Festival History : Rotterdam International Film Festival 2020- Nominee Bright Future Award- Best First Film, Săo Paulo International Film Festival 2020- Nominee New Directors Competition - Best Fiction
Director :
Illum Jacobi
Producer :
Katja Adomeit, Adrian Aurelius, Xavier Rocher
Screenplay :
Illum Jacobi, Hans Frederik, Jacobsen
DOP :
Frederik Jacobi
Editor :
Alexandra Strauss
Cast :
Antony Langdon, Nathalia Acevedo, Ulrik Wivel, Andrew Jeffers
Illum JACOBI (1977, Denmark) is a cinematographer and director with a background in mountaineering and arctic expeditions. He worked as a high altitude cameraman before being accepted into The National Film School of Denmark, where he studied cinematography. After graduating he started working in documentaries shooting in Haiti and Afghanistan. Jacobi has collaborated with visual artists on several films about nature in remote locations in the arctic and amazon. The Trouble with Nature (2020) is his feature film debut.