LIFE AND OTHER PROBLEMS / LIVET OG ANDRE PROBLEMER
Creative documentary, 97 min., 2024
What is the meaning of life, death and all the rest? Max Kestner gives an energetic and imaginative answer in his adventurous film, which begins with a young giraffe from Copenhagen, whose story goes viral all the way from Hollywood to Chechnya.
10 years ago, the news that Marius the giraffe was put down by the Copenhagen Zoo went viral all the way from Hollywood to Chechnya. But it was also the first domino to fall in the wild thicket of existential questions asked by Max Kestner in his new, joyously adventurous film. What is life? Does consciousness exist? Where does love come from? And not least: How is everything connected – like, really? With curiosity and an open mind, Kestner embarks on a philosophical voyage around the world to look for answers to his questions. With contributions from scientists like Charles Foster and Eske Willerslev, every answer sparks three new questions. And yet, throughout the journey, we do gain insight into the great and small workings of the universe. What could have ended up as the most (self-)important picture of all time has instead turned into a funny, creative and completely unpredictable experience.
Director Max Kestner
Producer Vibeke Vogel
Editor Michael Aaglund
Co-production Hopscotch Films and Plattform Produktion
With the support of Danish Film Institute, TV2 Denmark, Novo Nordisk, Screen Scotland, SFI, Nordisk Film og TV Fond
Screenings World premiere at CPH:DOX 2024 as opening film and nominated for DOX:AWARD, NORDIC:DOX and the audience award, International premiere at DokFest München 2024 competing in Main Competition, official selection BelDocs 2024, official selection Dokufest 2024
For educational purposes Life and Other Problems has been adapted into educational content in the form of a teaching site. It is an interdisciplinary source of inspiration across the natural sciences, the humanities and the artistic subjects. It is suitable for subjects such as biology, psychology, philosophy, Danish, social studies, religion and media subjects. The material generally contains four themes: Science, existence, ethics and creativity. N.B. This material is only available in Danish
TRAILER
Max Kestner
Max graduated from The National Film School of Denmark in 1997. After his graduation, Kestner worked for the national broadcaster DR TV. In 2004 he was behind the documentary series 'Blue Collar, White Christmas', which was selected for Karlovy Vary and Chicago Film Festival. The same year, he directed the short documentary 'Max by Chance', which was selected for IDFA and earned him an honorable mention at CPH:DOX. In 2008, Kestner received a Danish Robert for the short documentary 'The World in Denmark' (2007). His films 'Dreams in Copenhagen' (2009) and 'I am Fiction' (2012) have all been selected for a number of international festivals. In 2017, Kestner directed his first feature film, 'QEDA', which received a Danish Bodil for its production design.
Kestner received the Dreyer Award in 2005 and the Roos Award in 2019.