Nimik, Liis, dir. Sundial. Estonia: Klara Films, 2023, 2:33.
In nature everything is in balance. In the circle of life, which never ends, everyone has their task—plants and mushrooms, insects and animals . . . This diverse orchestra always finds its rhythm and tone. Recognizing the distinctiveness of being human, this film looks at what are our possibilities to peacefully coexist within that co-creation of nature. For nearly seven years of exploring the periphery countryside of Estonia, this oneiric journey filmed on 16 millimeters brings to the foreground the daily rhythms of ordinary people and animals in different ages and phases of their lives. It composes an analogue gospel of a microcosm, which has consciously or unconsciously rejected the central, arrogant doctrine of human exceptionality.
Sundial premiered at Visions du Réel and HotDocs in 2023.
Liis Nimik is a documentary filmmaker, fiction editor, and lecturer. Sundial is her debut feature documentary. The recent films she produced—Lembri Uudu (2017), The Weight of All the Beauty (2019), and A Loss of Something Ever Felt (2020) have all been international festival successes and premiered at festivals like DocLeipzig, Sarajevo, HotDocs, Melbourne IFF, Jihlava, and Black Nights.