Every night an Eastern Himalayan valley is lit up by an illuminated sheet flooded with buzzing insects, subjected to the loving gaze of a small research team. 

With awe-aspiring lush and misty mountainscapes as her office, Mansi dedicates her life to the mechanical and time-consuming process of observing, photographing, and measuring a specific type of moth. She might be the archetypical scientist—steadfast, razor-focused, and a little mad. Through the capturing of intimate conversations and a slow-paced approach, the film shows Mansi’s drive and how her infectious passion for moths gradually takes hold of her Indigenous assistants. It’s a radiating eco-document, made all the more beautiful by the immersive soundscape, and a whispered plea to confront ourselves with the far-reaching consequences of human-sparked temperature rise.

Afterword with Casper van der Kooi (In Dutch)

In Nocturnes, the viewer is taken into the life that takes place when daylight disappears. Biologist Casper van der Kooi discusses how insects perceive colour and light, and what this means for their behaviour in the dark. He talks about colour vision in insects, the role of light in nature and differences between day and night animals.

Casper van der Kooi is an evolutionary biologist at the University of Groningen, where he studies how colours arise and function in flowers and butterflies. In July 2024, he received the prestigious Heineken Young Scientist Award for his pioneering work on dynamic colours and brilliance in nature.