Requiem 2019 Starring Rutger Hauer

Requiem 2019 from Sil van der Woerd on Vimeo.

I had to watch this short film more than once before I could lift my jaw from the floor.  Directed by Sil van der Woerd and Rutger Hauer (who also stars), Requiem 2019 takes the last remaining blue whale and takes it eye to eye with its nemesis – us.  What can a single individual say to the last surviving member of a species which has been around for millions of years? Requiem 2019 is a melancholy demand that we take individual responsibility for preserving the largest animal to have ever lived.

Despite restrictions in hunting it still continues. In the Antarctic it is estimated that the population of blue whales is at one percent of its pre-hunting levels. What would become of human kind as a species if 99% of us were wiped of the face of the earth is, of course, conjecture: I sometimes wonder if we should even be classified as a species – virus seems a more appropriate term!