Filmmakers Christian Frei and Maxim Arbugaev’s moody documentary looks at the darker side of Raising the Mammoth and similar gee-whiz Discovery Channel and National Geographic science celebrations. On the Arctic island of New Siberia, climate change has caused such extensive ice melting that numerous mammoth carcasses and bones have come to light. Now, expeditions of latter-day "mammoth hunters"—mostly impoverished peasants deep in debt—spend seasons there in isolation, prospecting for ancient tusks that emerge from the permafrost. Ancient ivory in pristine condition is coveted by faraway Chinese businessmen (and the mammoths currently offer a way around the embargoes on poaching and butchering present-day species). But there is also a network of scientists and mammoth obsessives (chiefly Russian brothers Peter and Semyon Grigoriev) who are looking for preserved frozen carcasses. Any living cells still viable after thousands of years, they believe, will allow the revival of these extinct giants via either cloning or hybrid "chimera" embryo-implantation. The filmmakers visit George Church, America’s "rock star" of genetic engineering, and scandal-stained South Korean cloning expert Woo Suk Hwang, but the action invariably returns to the harsh, Werner Herzog-style narrative on New Siberia, where an ordeal of simple subsistence plays out amidst loneliness and deprivation, far from the schemes and vainglorious projects of the wealthy who are anticipating a DNA breakthrough. In both cases, the viewer is left with an uneasy feeling that whatever develops from these frontiers of science, ego, and exploitation, it will be tainted by less-than-noble agendas. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)
Genesis 2.0
(2018) 112 min. In English & Russian w/English subtitles. DVD: $29.98 ($345 w/PPR from www.kimstim.com). KimStim (avail. from most distributors). Volume 34, Issue 5
Genesis 2.0
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As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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