mud ritual(2026)

In the summer of 2024, filmmaker and artist Janne Elens retreats to rural Sweden, where she stays on a permaculture farm that, years prior, had served as a sanctuary after she had escaped a dangerous situation. After years of trauma processing, she now decides to close this chapter of humiliation and suffering, on the land that had carried her so dearly while the residue of this traumatic event lingered on her body. This mud ritual arose from a spontaneous urge to give herself deep cleansing, and in doing so, return all the filth and the dirt inflicted upon her back to the Earth.