Working to Beat the Devil

Synopsis

‘Images of all past actions incessantly passing through the brain…’An ageing scientist, troubled and confused by remembrances from his past, toils night and day to (re-) discover secrets to the creation of life. The creature, struggling for existence in the natural world, journeys unceasingly to find its creator. Composed using fictional, archival and documentary material, the film interweaves semi-biographical elements from the hermetic life of Guy Shewring (the scientist) with an imagined world of his past and future, in which science becomes fiction. The film instills a quiet yet powerful sense of wonder in rediscovering the wild shapes of nature.

Director Biography

Chu-Li Shewring and Adam Gutch have been collaborating since 2007. They studied at the National Film and Television School, UK, specialising in sound-design and documentary. Often taking inspiration from uncanny aspects of the natural world, and the creatures and people who inhabit these environments, they like to combine both non-fictional and fictional approaches in their films. They live on the Isle of Wigh.