Outside, a storm ravages. Night rolls out from under the bed. Together with her mother, sisters and brother, the filmmaker shares stories about people and plants. Long ago, we were close to the trees that healed us and the plants that protected us. Tonight, life shimmers upon the ground, but the natural world that we’ve swept away into desiccated history proposes to turn the world upside down.

Fanny Béguély has given her film-essay a title borrowed from the ancient Greek medicinal and philosophical term describing life and respiration as a spirit. In this work, Béguély returns to the autobiographical, fusing the intimate with the political, the mythological with the Christian, and humans with flora and fauna.

Jury statement: Director Fanny Béguély twists the idea of a family gathering and turns Pneuma into a sensual, mysterious and beautifully scored journey through the fearful powers of nature.