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‘The Sweet Stench of Sulfur’ blends documentary, historical, and fictional elements by merging mythical and apocalyptic components into what seems like fragments of a dream. It examines human interaction with nature and how nature reclaims itself through natural disasters.
The film was shot at the Dead Sea where sinkholes are ‘swallowing’ man-made habitats due to evaporation and climate change. Although dangerous and unpredictable, there is beauty in these colorful pools which have been a mysterious source for new microbial life in an ecosystem infamous for its barren characteristics. The voice-over is based on an interview conducted with a geologist who was ‘swallowed’ by a sinkhole. Trapped inside a liminal space, he underwent psychological extremes from hope to despair. In a post-truth political era, where objective facts about global warming are mythicized, the film reflects on the uncertain through a scientific, metaphysical, and historical lens.
