13-23 nov 2025
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We Are Dead Animals
Program
We Are Dead Animals
DocLab

We Are Dead Animals

Tote Tiere Maarten
Netherlands, Germany
2025
20 min
World Premiere
IDFA DocLab Program & Competition, IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive Non-Fiction
Synopsis

After his previous project about the dead animals around us (Dancing with Dead Animals), the filmmaker and animator decided to dedicate not only his further work but also his name to dead animals. For his new VR game, Tote Tiere Maarten (“Dead Animals Maarten”) created a desolate landscape—his interpretation of paradise—you can fly through with the guide of your choice.

In this environment you encounter dead animals that you can revive. You can also read about their deaths—someone’s beloved pet cat died of old age, a rat was found floating in the water, a spider Maarten found by his back door. He made the 3D animations using photograms of each dead animal. What you do with them is up to you. Will you keep them to play with later, release them into paradise, or eat them to fuel your body with much-needed energy?

This compassionate if somewhat macabre project explores our relationship with animals and mortality. After all, we’ll all be dead animals in the end.

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Credits
20 min
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Spoken languages: English
Director
    Tote Tiere Maarten
    Tote Tiere Maarten
Key collaborator
    Frank Bosma
    Frank Bosma
Production
    Richard Valk for Valk productions
    Richard Valk for Valk productions
Co-production
    Evelyn Brancard for Menetekel Film
    Evelyn Brancard for Menetekel Film
Animation
    Tote Tiere Maarten
    Tote Tiere Maarten
Sound Design
    Michał Krajczok
    Michał Krajczok
Narrator
    Prof. Ds. Hendrikus Berkhof, posthumously generated
    Prof. Ds. Hendrikus Berkhof, posthumously generated
Screening copy
    Tote Tiere Maarten
    Tote Tiere Maarten

Stills

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