Niobe Thompson
PBS
Embracing failure leads to experience and, ultimately, extraordinary achievements. This is at the heart of Niobe Thompson鈥檚 documentary Hunt for the Oldest DNA, which premiered at the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival this year.
The film follows Eske Willerslev, a Danish evolutionary geneticist now at the University of Cambridge, whose team managed to reconstruct from ancient DNA the ecosystem that existed 2 million years ago in the Kap K酶benhavn Formation, northern Greenland. The area today is Arctic desert with few organisms, but back then it was a forest inhabited by reindeer and other species, perhaps even camels.
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Yet as the documentary shows, Willerslev鈥檚 success was hard-won. 鈥淚 was a school failure, that鈥檚 the truth,鈥� he says, explaining how years before he had been a desperate boy wrestling with his mental health. But he found a way through and, a few years on, we see him head the pioneering team of scientists out to sequence the oldest DNA.
Former anthropologist Thompson provides Willerslev with space to dig deep into his private life and his discoveries, which started with expeditions to Siberia in the early 1990s with his twin brother, Rane.
Roughly shot scenes are juxtaposed with beautifully animated flashbacks, as well as interviews during which Willerslev is an open book, and a very interesting one. The insight that took him on his epic hunt to Greenland started one rainy day, as a student at the University of Copenhagen, when he saw a dog defecating. He wondered (as you do) if some DNA might be left in the faeces or on the ground 鈥� and for how long.
In one of the film鈥檚 most touching sequences, Willerslev reveals that curiosity plays a big part in scientific work, but that it isn鈥檛 his main drive. 鈥淚鈥檝e always had this need for winning. By winning, I鈥檓 keeping away my demons,鈥� he says.
Hunt for the Oldest DNA is a jewel of a film, an engaging tale about work-life balance and mental health that tugs at our hearts but also provides a unique learning experience. It loops in complex theories and concepts 鈥� the DNA double helix, evolution and how our planet is endangered 鈥� exploring them all in a playful fashion.
Davide Abbatescianni is a聽film聽critic based in Rome.
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