Alexandru Solomon does much more than a documentary. His film, shot over a 5-6 year period is an in-depth look into the unique Abkhazian society and the unique centre for studying monkeys there. Everything in the documentary is peculiar, strange, comical and cynical at the same time but also very human. Including the monkeys, which play a very human role, almost as the people.
The documentary shows a poor, border society, torn by war, poverty, lack of basic and cruel politics. But it does not stress this. Rather it manages to suggest an alternative life, where monkeys are humans, doctors are patients, scientific studies are done in vain, a research institute is also a zoo, there is no break from work but also no work in our sense of the term. But above all, it is a very humane place. There are no bad characters in the movie. Everyone is full of compassion and of a certain joy. In the end, the great power of this documentary that is more an anthropological research, is that it offers not criticism but another world, another life that could be also ours.
