“Instead of reasoning, I’m artificial,
destiny scattered in cities already built.”

‍Rooted In The Soil is a personal short by Russian born, London based filmmaker and keen social and environmental activist Vasilia Forbes. The film is designed as an ode to the natural world in our ecological crisis. It follows an actress as she discusses the relationship of her body to the two environments she inhabits, and directly the disparity between the two worlds is presented; the natural vs the man made. Comparisons drawn between the body and the nurturing natural world question the freedom to be connected to the body and feel truly human.

Forbes << Urban environments have become so overwhelming to humanity, and such a prison to many people, they provide us with work and homes but we are then often so absorbed by them and unable to escape. Nature and being near to it becomes a privilege, which in itself is a rather insane idea..that the most natural, most innate need for humans...to be near a natural environment/water/grass etc, is only a privilege for the lucky few that can find a way to exist there. In our film, Leah feels trapped by the intense concrete urbanisation she stems from, something I feel most of us at one point in our lives can relate to..a need to feel wholesome, in a harsh cold world. Especially when urbanisation and industrialisation is ever growing, our natural and un-owned spaces are becoming ever smaller. What will happen in a world where there is no natural public land left, no nature, no forests, just mega cities? I'm afraid of that idea. >>

‍