A small slice of life set in the Austrian Alps, this short documents the extensive annual routine of care that Kathleen Svatek dutifully provides for a 23-year-old Hermann’s tortoise (Testudo hermanni) named Tony. This notably includes Tony’s months spent in a vegetable crisper, where he hibernates at a stable temperature, safe from unpredictable winters. For his film, the director G Anthony Svatek – who is both Kathleen’s son and Tony’s owner – captures this unusual spectacle as it unfolds against the sublime landscape of Salzburg on vivid 16mm film, and pairs these images with the dramatic sounds of a Mozart opera. The effect is endearing and entertaining while underscoring something rather profound: the extraordinary measures people will take to care for loved ones – or even the Greek tortoises of loved ones, far from their natural habitat.
The sauna life
Each cycle of steam and cold brought me closer to the land, my mother, and the version of myself I’d left behind
by Katja Pettinen
