SCINTILLA ANIMAE

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This is a true story  about the six months long experiment made by six young people, non actors. These people were inspired by the vision of the ancient mystic, philosopher and theologian from the 13th century, Meister Eckhart, which stated that every soul, within itself, holds a part which is in constant connection with the Absolute. This unveiled the hypothesis that each person has in him/herself a passage that could lead to the Absolute knowledge and experience that Humanity ever has had, and which is not even part of one's own life and experience. This part in our soul Eckhart called „scintilla animae“ (the spark of the soul) – short moments when each of us may sense as if the time has stopped to exist and as if nothing has any more the meaning and order that till that moment used to have.

Fulfilled by contagious thrill of this idea, armed only with a strong determination and patience, these young people started an experiment – to test if this space is still available nowadays, within them, in spite of being part of the modern world as soldiers of modern habits. The big help in this experiment were the exercises from the world of Osho's dynamic meditation, that was helpful to pass easier the border that usually stands in between the reality and imagination, truth and fiction, life and art. Poetic, rebellious, and imaginative experiences were created in the closed spaces, but brought on the streets as well, bridges, river costs, cafes, among people, and garbage dumps among forgotten remains that once belonged to people. These moments of meeting sometimes were bringing sweetness and strength of the vision, sometimes a confused and bitter sensation of loss of something important.. Human Being?  But maybe we should watch deeply his face and see him truly for what he is now, and catch the traits of beauty in it?  Moments of sincere, and personal reflections..

The entire film presents moments from this journey. Materials which create it were filmed during the entire course of a six-month process, without a previously written script and without repetition. Every material is a fruit of improvisation, and of the need to always be ready and live each moment: now. So, the main slogan that protagonists followed was not: Act! But – Be!

This film could possibly be called a documentary, if we hadn’t decided to, during the editing process of already filmed materials, create a story which is imaginary, but which in turn deepens the reality of the process and personal stories which six protagonists have lived through. So we decided to call it simply – experimental!