It’s not just nature’s wealth of species that is under threat. Our own language is also in danger of losing the words that enable us to understand the world around us – and not least to re-enchant it at a critical time. ‘The Lost Words’ is a visually poetic and thought-provoking film inspired by the book by Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morris’ book of the same name.
The film takes us on a journey through local landscapes in the UK, exploring the deep connection between language, nature and the pressing challenges facing the world today. Meanwhile, words associated with the natural world are disappearing from the collective vocabulary.
With children, Alzheimer’s patients and environmental activists among its narrators, Hannah Papacek Harper’s film is a hopeful call to re-establish our own intimate connection to nature, and to immerse ourselves in its dizzying riches of motifs.