POV, Fauna
PBS WESTERN RESERVE (WNEO 45.1 / WEAO 49.1):
Sunday, Aug. 11, at 11 PM
Fusion (WNEO 45.2 / WEAO 49.2):
Saturday, Aug. 10, at noon
Directed by Pau Faus and produced by Sergi Cameron and Ventura Durall, the film, set amidst the hunt for a COVID-19 vaccine in a high-tech research lab, explores the role of animal experimentation in the advancement of modern medicine.
In FAUNA, director Pau Faus’ second feature film, he goes to a forest on the outskirts of Barcelona where Valeriano, an old shepherd afflicted with a bone disease, and his flock live alongside CReSA (Animal Health Research Center), a high-tech laboratory for animal experimentation. Valeriano raises goats to sell to research labs that use the animals to create medication needed to rid him of the pain he suffers after years of goat-herding. The two opposite worlds are also playfully interconnected.
Faus’s spirited exploration of deeply serious themes helps guide reflections on the limits of modernity — when a small bug is discovered inside the maximum sterile lab chaos ensues; lab workers discuss yoga and bachata while incinerating the animal test subject remains; and Valeriano jokes about a future when iPads will be used to replace shepherds. The director juxtaposes two realms that rarely intersect, and where individuals strive to navigate and endure both personal and global crises.
Filmed over two years with exclusive access to CReSA’s laboratory — similar to the one in Wuhan, China — FAUNA’s poetic style and deadpan humor contrast the two drastically different realities between ultra-modernity and a vanishing traditional way of life, offering a poignant reflection on the tangled relationship between humanity, animal and science.
