Irene Kaltenborn’s The Mother Age selected for CPH:DOX’s Next:Wave competition
The Mother Age, from Norwegian artist and filmmaker Irene Kaltenborn, will receive its world premiere at this year’s CPH:DOX, where it screens in the festival’s Next:Wave competition for innovative films by emerging talents. Inspired by Ursula K Le Guin and other feminist thinkers, the film examines alternative origins of human culture, inviting audiences on a richly philosophical and sensory journey of (re)discovery.
Travelling from the barren coastline of Finnmark to the deep forests of Finland, The Mother Age searches for clues that might illuminate an ancient theory reaching back to the dawn of humanity.
Kaltenborn explains that Le Guin’s essay “The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction” made her realise that “ever since our ancestors walked the Earth, we have been following a singular, shared narrative” based on the traces we uncover. “If we examine the earliest entries in our archaeological records, what remains are predominantly stone knives and axes - organic materials are rarely found, as they decompose beneath the surface.”
The director adds that it was important for her to “create a sensory as well as philosophical film that would not become a competing narrative, but instead invite the viewer into a quiet, yet formative, rethinking of our relationship with the living world.”
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR:
Irene Margrethe Kaltenborn (°1997) is a Norwegian director, artist and producer. She has a Master’s degree from Malmö Art Academy and creates films that engage deeply with history, natural and social phenomena and contemporary discourses.
She made her directorial debut in 2024 with Choreographies Towards Loss, which has screened at festivals and art institutions around the world. She is also the founder of Vidåpne Øyne, a production company specialising in the creation of innovative documentaries.
CPH:DOX SCREENINGS*:
• 14 March, 16:30, DFI /Cinemateket (world premiere, follwed by Q&A with Irene Kaltenborn)
• 18 March, 12:15, Dagmar Teatret
• 21 March, 13:00, Statens Museum for Kunst/SMK (film + live event: “History written through the organic, the fragile and the ephemeral”)
*Always check the festival website for any last-minute programme changes.
materials / materiaalitTHE MOTHER AGE TOURING IN FINLAND: Following its world premiere at CPH:DOX, Kaltenborn will take The Mother Age on tour in Finland. Beginning in mid-August, the film will be screened in a variety of different venues from Helsinki to Karelia, including a special premiere screening in the largest preserved smoke house located in Kesälahti, and an open-air screening in the forests of Ähtari. (More details to follow closer to the tour start.)
Christian De Schutter
