Spoon / Karote
Latvia, Lithuania, Norway 2019

The ordinary plastic spoon has tried hard to pull the wool over our eyes, to feign its harmless insignificance. But then, Laila Pakalniņa casts her perceptive eye in its direction. This original Latvian filmmaker is well-versed in how much effort people invest in the manufacture of disposable utensils, and she cannot but laugh ruthlessly at the paradox. No sooner are these plastic servants brought into use than their days are numbered. Drawing on humour from surprising parallels and juxtapositions which only cinema can do to great effect, this wordless and hypnotic documentary film sings a mournful song about the emblem of our bloated civilization: a piece of cheap plastic doomed to fade into history.