As climate change takes hold and the Earth becomes more hostile, filmmaker Sofie Benoot is left wondering how to reinvent herself, how to find more stories to tell, how to take a step sideways. The removal of a kidney stone becomes the starting point for an extensive reflection on stone. Not as something which is cold and dead, but rather as something which gives us direction, telling the story of our past and our connection to living things. This essay-film portrays a global treasure hunt, joyfully related by Siân Phillips, a well-known TV narrator who introduced nature and wild animals into English households every Sunday evening for decades. Between each chapter of the director’s quest, fantastic “surprises” emerge, caught on hidden web cams in forests, jungles, deserts and the Earth’s poles. Nature is both within reach, whether we are observing or surveilling it, but it is also infinite and imperceptible. This film offers a profound look at both everyday life and ecology, as well as a magnificent declaration of love for the planet.

A hypnotic essay film asking urgent ecological questions, Apple Cider Vinegar takes the viewer on a journey meeting Palestinian quarry workers, passionate British geologists and people living on the lava fields of Fogo in Cape Verde.