“The truth you seek, Hermit, did not come into this world bare, but came in images.” With this realization, a hermit traveling through India, suspended between meditation on Mount Arunachala in Tiruvannamalai and a trip to the temples of Mahabalipuram, reflects on the sense of images in the earthly dimension and, therefore, on the final meaning of his own spiritual pursuit.

Angolan director and screenwriter Pocas Pascoal reminds us that it’s time for a change, proposing through this film a look at colonialism, capitalism, and their impact on global biodiversity. We observe that the destruction of the ecosystem goes back a long way and is already underway through land exploitation, big game hunting, and the exploitation of man by man.

"Hope Road" reflects the filmmaker’s artistic journey in a world shaken by crises and wars, as the mother of a small child whose existence seems to demand something dif- ferent from her than the production of art. While the ‘old world’ of the artist founders, she escapes from the dysto- pian scenarios of the present by taking up the child’s point of view.

In the wilderness of the Siberian Arctic, Aisen Klimovskii, an Indigenous Sakha palaeontologist, descends into the depths of the melting permafrost and traverses the mythical realm of the Underworld in search of an ancient creature. Balanced between mythology and science, Aisen’s journey through the claustrophobic, dangerous caves is guided by a poetic narration inspired by the epic storytelling tradition of the Sakha people. The film explores one of the most pressing climate change issues of our time – accelerating permafrost thaw releases greenhouse gases and unearths creatures carrying viruses and microorganisms from the distant past.