Nocturnes
Moths play a central role in a documentary that takes us into a fascinating world unknown to most.
Image courtesy of Dogwoof Releasing.
Filmed in the forest of the Eastern Himalayas Nocturnes certainly counts as a nature documentary but it is one of a rare and highly distinctive kind. It is the work of two Indian filmmakers both based in Delhi who previously combined to make a long-term project centred on a village in Manipur that was awaiting electricity. That film started shooting in 2015 and finally emerged only in 2023 as the feature length Flickering Lights. Their second joint enterprise came about after the two of them, Anirban Dutta and Anupama Srinivasan, had a chance meeting with Mansi Mungee whose enthusiastic talk about the moths that she was studying in the Himalayan forest area of Northeast India sparked their interest. The world of the lepidopterist is something that was unfamiliar to Dutta and Srinivasan but Mansi Mungee’s words encouraged them to take the journey to see the work that she was doing for themselves and that led directly to the making of Nocturnes.
Just like Datta and Srinivasan before filming, many of those who go to see Nocturnes will have very limited awareness of the world of the hawk moths which are the specific subject of Mansi Mungee’s researches. We see her putting up lighted cloth sheets in the forest which at night will attract moths, creatures whose individual lives may last for less than a week but whose existence on earth goes back three hundred million years. Their varied patterns and sizes can be studied through photographs taken of them when they come to rest on the checkered grid pattern marked out on the sheet and all this feeds into studies of such matters as the relationship between their body sizes and the temperatures of the particular forest areas in which they exist. But it is long arduous work since for the moths to be attracted in this way needs the right weather conditions including the degree of light in the sky and that excludes the possibility of success save for ten nights around the time of each new moon.
In carrying out her work Mansi is helped by a young member of the Bugun tribe. His name is Gendan Marphew but she always refers to him as Bicki and the friendly bond between them is self-evident even if out of respect he finds it appropriate to address her as ‘ma’am’ (her background as an ecologist does after all link her to Leeds University in the UK as well as to the Indian Institute of Science Education in Pune whose Ramana Athreya also appears in this film in the capacity of valued advisor to Mansi). However, Nocturnes is not a film that goes into the backgrounds of the people involved since its chief concern is with the remarkable work that they do. That may take them into a laboratory, but nevertheless the greater part of the footage is given over to those key outdoor locations, to the greenery of the region by day and to the crucial nocturnal hours when the moths settle. The aim here is to make the viewer feel that they are directly participating as they observe all the preparations undertaken and then experience the sense of wonder induced by close observation of the moths.
From time to time there are voice-over comments in addition to conversations with Bicki in which Mansi Mungee supplies further information about the moths and the aim of the work on which she engaged. But for the most part Nocturnes functions as an invitation to be drawn in so that we can ponder and share the awe which this sphere of the natural world induces. Greatly aided by both the magnificent photography (it is the work of Yaël Bitton along with Anupama Srinivasan herself) and by an important use of atmospheric natural sounds (the sound design is by Shreyank Nanjappa), the film is appropriately slow-moving but also mesmerising.
The approach adopted here is not easy to bring off but it is handled so well on this occasion that it seems possible that Nocturnes will prove to be a masterpiece. If in the event it falls a bit short of that it is not because the footage of the moths outstays its welcome. Instead, it stems from the fact that in order to extend the film to standard feature length it incorporates subsidiary scenes. These deal with such matters as the local weather conditions and additional lab work as well as noting the presence of other forms of forest life. For a while we lose sight of the moths and then come to realise that this part of the film is for that very reason of somewhat less interest. In addition, the late inclusion of shots of elephants seems like padding, but sadly it is all too valid for the film’s concluding scenes to touch on the subject of climate change. But if when considered as a whole Nocturnes is less than perfect the first hour is wholly wondrous, a contemplative work that opens up to us a world that is far more fascinating than we could ever have guessed. For that the film is well worth your attention and its appeal is confirmed by the fact that it has already won no less than three awards at film festivals.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Featuring Mansi Mungee, Gendan ‘Bicki’ Marphew, Ramana Athreya, Tsering ‘Bayum’ Wangchu Marphew, Wangchu ‘Baifua’ Phiyang, Gyalbulama.
Dir Anirban Dutta and Anupama Srinivasan, Pro Anirban Dutta, Screenplay Anirban Dutta and Anupama Srinivasan, Ph Satya Nagpaul, Ed Yaël Bitton, Music Nainita Desai, Sound Shreyank Nanjappa.
Sandbox Films/Metamorphosis Films Junction/Doc Society/Dogwoof-Dogwoof Releasing.
82 mins. USA/India. 2024. UK Rel: 6 December 2024. Cert. U.