THE FANTASTIC LIFE OF MISS BACON 

Short Talk with Florian Rudolph (director), Laura Ritzke (editor) and Oscar Meyer-Ricks (producer)

Documentary / Germany / 2022 / 14‘08‘‘

BEST STUDENT DOCUMENTARY FILM Category

21st IN THE PALACE International Short Film Festival 2024 

Synopsis: On Level 6, in a concrete tower, in the beautiful old-town of Potsdam, is the home of Pebbels, the pig. The baby of the Steiner family. Rising star of her block. Prime student of the dog school. The a rummaging and wondrous creature is being cooked and showered - pardon, cooked for, of course. What else?

Biography: Growing up in Kirchberg, Switzerland, Florian discovered his fascination for insects and plants early on. Consequently, he studied environmental sciences at ETH Zurich and social anthropology in Bern. His bachelor thesis about an environmental conflict in Canada resulted into
a short film: "The Island Business" (2017). He hitchhiked to Azerbaijan and worked in the fields of marine conservation and environmental education. Currently he is studying film directing at the Babelsberg Film University.

Florian Rudolph, Director

Florian Rudolph (director): Pigs in general are very intelligent, so we found a way to work with her, but also, she was hitting puberty and she was quite a diva, so it was not always easy. She bit me several times and two times in both big toes. 

Initially I wanted to do a film about dogs. I saw this beautiful dog in a beautiful handbag, and I was thinking it’s really weird how it becomes kind of an accessory to humans, and I feel she’s also an accessory but, somehow, I just came upon this fact that pigs are the most intelligent at least farm animals. And then I had the feeling that I want to kind of give stage to those animals because I think they’re not so present in our minds as dogs, for example.

Oscar Meyer-Ricks (producer): We all were studying in the film University of Babelsberg Konrad Wolf and this is our first-year movie. We were talking about the concept then, Florian had some great ideas about how he wants to make a movie about pigs, then we had a full feature film about how we could shoot with pigs and then we had luck to find this family and we just went with what was coming. We just wanted to make a movie in our first year of studying and we had a lot of fun, and we learned a lot. I think that is what the first year should be about and the film, which came out, was a great experience for us.

Author's View:

It’s not often you can find movies of this kind, in which the main character of the picture is not a guy, not a girl, not a child and not elderly, but a cute pink harmless creature. Well, or not quite harmless... sometimes it bites, as director Florian Rudolph shared with us during the interview. But how sweet it seems to smile and with what kind eyes it looks at us, right?

Although the plot of the movie is planned to be light and funny, it has a more serious meaning. The
theme goes deeper than it may seem at first glance.

We are used to having pets, but are they an accessory for us? It is accepted in society that there is nothing strange to carry a handsome dog or puppy in a nice purse and walk like that around the city. None of the passers-by will react strangely if they encounter such a picture. But what will happen if, having stepped outside, they meet a person, that took their mini pig out for a walk? I suppose, then the passers-by would be surprised. At least a bit. Here we have a look at a situation like this through the lens of the family and through the lens of society, which is very interesting to watch.

The Fantastic Life of Miss Bacon is a film, born from student’s idea with a very entertaining concept,
done in a light and positive tone, watched in one breath.