Eleanor Mortimer: How deep is your love
Eleanor Mortimer’s debut feature might be the most inspiring science doc of the year. Funny and serious, light and dark, poetic and informative. “Why we called it planet Earth when more than 70% of its surface is water?” says Mortimer’s playful voice over in the beginning of the film. And, indeed, the film is full of water with sea creatures that seem to come from another planet. But they live in planet Earth. Such a paradox that our civilization is willing to go to Mars while we have a vast portion of our own planet completely unexplored!
The film follows a crew of passionate biologists into the deep ocean. There’s no light five kilometers under the sea surface, however, it turns to be a realm full of life. In order to stop minery in international deep sea waters, it is crucial that marine scientists can map and categorize a vast amount of animals living in the oceanic darkest areas. But such work takes years, how much time do we have?
A robot named by the Egyptian goddess of death Isis not only conducts such necessary research but turns to be an extremely talented DoP. The team of biologists cannot believe what they are seeing and the audience will be mesmerized by their enthusiasm. Isis films an extraordinary array of creatures never seen before and still unnamed. So the biologist must give names to the unseen. And lucky for us they have sense of humor! A beautiful unknown creature who moves elegantly in the deep sea is temporary called Spanish Dancer; a starfish with a special skin it’s named as Wedding Dress Star; a pink luminescent alien-like creature becomes the Barbie Pig. Mortimer’s film is full of love for our planet and it is a must see for the young audiences.
United Kingdom, 2025, 101 minutes
Review by Pol Roig
