Laborat

In a cancer research center in Berlin, a film crew records experiments being performed on mice. The mice undergo a range of measurements and, in extreme close-ups, we see them being operated on, getting injections or being led under a scanner. The rise and fall of a mouse’s chest, a stretched-out mouse leg or a close-up of the red nose cause involuntary associations with pets. We don’t know whether it’s always the same mouse or many different ones: these lab animals are totally interchangeable. Discomfort is far too weak a word for the feelings evoked when watching these highly detailed recordings of vivisection: a strong stomach is certainly recommended. The analogue filming method gives the images a 1980s look; only the presence of ultramodern laboratory equipment reveals that this film was in fact made recently. The filmmakers, who avoid polemics and sentimentality, also show their own preparations as they try out different sound and image settings, making the whole thing an experiment within an experiment. The silent images are only occasionally interrupted by directions from the filmmakers, making the whole situation even more abstract, clinical and oppressive.