While mermaids have been an integral part of myths and folklore all around the world, today, they are more than just a symbol. The mermaid’s hybrid body and, even more so, its hybrid belonging to both land and sea is, as artists Miri Ian Gossing and Lina Sieckmann show in their co-directed feature Sirens Call [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], a catalyst for individuals to find the identity that is most true to them. Ian Gossing and Sieckmann have made an experimental film between documentary and fiction, deeply rooted in trans and queer studies, as well as critical posthumanism and ecocriticism. Fittingly, Sirens Call has had its world premiere in the more experimental Forum section of the 75th Berlinale.

At the beginning of the film, in Portland, Oregon, we meet Gina Rønning, who holds a PhD in Psychology and a master’s degree in Conflict Resolution; as much as she is Gina, she is also Una the Mermaid, a professional mermaid, water oracle and a social justice activist. Through Una and her non-binary offspring, Moth Rønning-Bötel, the audience is able to get a glimpse of a whole community: merfolk. Merfolk identify as other-than-human and defy the binarisms of normativity in various ways, including presenting as a mermaid (having a tail).

The film was developed over the course of eight years with the help of the Wim Wenders Grant: the co-directors spent years researching and filming, acquainting themselves in person with communities that most of us could probably only reach online. Therefore, the status of Sirens Call as a real, tangible document of non-conforming practices and lives is unmatched, and the film form reflects the hybrid embodiment of its protagonists. Even when we see interviews shot in the “talking head” format, the scenes retain a certain kind of elusiveness; as a whole, the movie is slippery and fluid, much like the mermaid tails depicted. More often, though, the frame harbours underwater shots, flickering wide shots of spaces that are already imbued with their own mystique, all metamorphic on their own terms.

Sirens Call reveals only a little of its very solid philosophical framework. Instead, it lets its characters embody it on screen, both with their bodies and with their words. There’s no doubt that this is the best thing a film about non-normative identities can do, since its task is not just to educate and show, but also to become a medium that fits its content. The viewer, then, should be curious, but also somewhat familiar with the themes discussed. It’s not that somebody who’s completely new to non-human identifications or hybrid identity wouldn’t understand, but a knowledgeable audience will surely make more use of the film’s riches.

Even though the feature takes us on a journey through the USA – where the “American Dream” can be interrogated in terms of non-human identity – it would be unfair to assume that merfolk communities exist only there. Quite the opposite: such communities are, in fact, ubiquitous as they form and develop largely online. What the film does is invite the viewer to question one’s stable identity and to recognise the larger forces at play that have forced a hierarchy of “accepted” and “marginalised” on individuals everywhere.

Sirens Call is a German-Dutch production by Schalten und Walten and filmfaust, in co-production with ZDF and Elbe Stevens Films. Canadian company Syndicado handles the film’s world sales.