Deep in the earth beneath Arctic permafrost, seeds from all over the world are stored in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault to provide a backup should disaster strike. Wild Relatives starts from an event that has sparked media interest worldwide: in 2012 an international agricultural research center was forced to relocate from Aleppo to Lebanon due to the Syrian Revolution turned war, and began a laborious process of planting their seed collection from the Svalbard back-ups.

Following the path of this transaction of seeds between the Arctic and Lebanon, a series of encounters unfold a matrix of human and non-human lives between these two distant spots of the earth. It captures the articulation between this large-scale international initiative and its local implementation in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon, carried out primarily by young migrant women.

The meditative pace patiently teases out tensions between state and individual, industrial and organic approaches to seed saving, climate change and biodiversity, witnessed through the journey of these seeds.

Dir. Jumana Manna - 66min - 2018 - Lebanon/Norway/Germany

Subtitles available in: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese.

"Manna’s work is disarmingly easy to appreciate...her stories are thoughtfully timed and crisply narrated, laced with moments of unusually lyrical beauty." - Frieze

"Beauty and horror lie close together in the Anthropocene, just as they do in this film’s outstanding images." - Berlinale

“optimism, empathy, and agility, engaging with the present” CPH:DOX Jury

"The competition’s finest film, Jumana Manna’s Wild Relatives, displayed complexity, sensitivity and precision....mixes humble, aesthetically pleasing observational visual material with an intelligent and politically astute central monologue" - Senses of Cinema, on CPH:DOX win.

"a study of resilience and dedication, benefiting from superb photography and a commitment towards greater understanding of our fragile natural world." - Sheffield Doc Fest