Holy Destructors
Aistė Žegulytė / Lithuania, France & Latvia / 2025 / 85 min
A deeply original and inventive film about microfungi, the passage of time, and human vanity, which turns the microscope both on these mysterious life forms and on ourselves.
If you thought that humans were the center of the universe – or that we were at least the bosses on our own planet – it is time to think twice. Microfungi have been here long before we arrived, and they will outlive us all. With humor, visual ingenuity, and an open, philosophical mind, Lithuanian filmmaker Aistė Žegulytė has created an unexpected audience favorite of a film that strikes at our vanity.
‘Holy Destructors’ turns the microscope both on the mysterious micro-organisms and on ourselves. Microfungi are both a prerequisite for life and inevitably lead to the change we call death – which is itself a prerequisite for life to continue and evolve. While the fungi do their work, doctors fight to save bodies and curators fight to save priceless works of art. Throughout most of the film, the image is round as in a microscope, while the microfungi take over the screen completely.