Hips move rhythmically, bodies become entwined, a sexual dance is practised which at some point leads to a climax that will transport the dancer to another level. We are not in some night club in a European metropolis; we are among women in Zambia preparing each other for marriage. This is where they learn how to stay in control during intercourse, which naturally includes women pleasuring themselves. This is also where women are familiarised with the sight of the blood of defloration by making them cut the throat of a chicken clamped between their thighs. But women are not to behave like chickens under any circumstances! At any rate, it is said that after completing this course the ladies are able to carry their marriage, including the husband involved, “like a burden on their heads”.
Kim Brand approaches the rituals and thinking of another culture, not least by reflecting on her own relationship back home in Holland, opening quite original perspectives on the experience of pride, freedom, and happiness. An instructive film from every angle. We’re welcome to applaud these women at the end, as they do only after completing the act with their husband.

Claudia Lehmann

“Eat or be eaten”, people would have said in the past. Today we have a different, wider perspective on nature. A whole life cycle is contained in the crocodile’s stomach: a stork who ate a frog who ate a praying mantis who …

Sometimes adults visit the places of their childhood and remember their former playmates. In this case these were various pets which disappeared in droves, accompanied by the parents’ ever-changing explanations. But which adult still believes in the Easter Bunny? A mordant requiem.