Priit Tender’s Journey to the Maggot Feeder
85 minutes
Documentary about Estonian filmmaker Priit Tender and his short animated film The Maggot Feeder (2012), based on a folk tale of the Chukotka, from the easternmost tip of Russia, next to the Bering Sea. It tells about a young couple who live there on the permafrost and are unable to have children. The man decides to kill his wife, and digs a stone pit where he raises gigantic maggots. But the woman finds out and outsmarts him. The anthropological documentary shows, besides insight into its maker’s motives and methods, the filmmaker’s intriguing journey to the meaning of popular legend and its origin. Via a psychotherapist in Estonia and a writer in London, with whom he discusses the interpretation of some elements, to Russia and eventually former Chukotka, where he also discusses things with the current inhabitants.
This program screened as part of Haff 2016
Showing in this program
The Maggot Feeder
A man decides to kill his wife because she can't have children. He builds a stone house on the seashore and starts to grow maggots in it. When the maggots are as thick as a wrist, he invites his wife for a walk on the beach...
The Maggot Feeder is an ancient Chukchi folk tale. It takes us on a journey to the darkest alleys of the human mind.
