A certain kind of form was needed to be able to render, on screen, the complexity of the colours, the textures and – ultimately -, the lives that pass through the hands of Zoe Lucas. For decades, the ecologist has kept a small island off the coast of Canada under observation, acting as a living, crucial memory of this natural habitat. For this reason, an insect species represents more than a trophy meant to be stuck with a needle; a herd of wild horses is more than an occasion for contemplation. As fascinated by the raw beauty of nature as the film proves to be, it eventually ends up just as angst-ridden, to the extent that not even this place located in the middle of the ocean is safe from man’s destructive action. “Geographies of Solitude” thus builds itself as an elegy in vivo to a not-so-fanciful idea about a lost paradise: a space-time where nature can evolve untouched, in an almost cosmic spectacle. (Victor Morozov)