Abandoned buildings, dilapidated ruins, towns overgrown by nature, crumbling roads: all these places were built by people, but are now abandoned. They are gradually being returned to nature. With images that are both breathtakingly beautiful and disturbing, “Homo sapiens" is a beautiful movie about the finitude and fragility of human existence. Which traces of our lives will be left when we are no longer around? Is it a source of comfort that the world would persist even long after people are gone?

Nikolaus Geyrhalter’s films are also called film poems. He does not go for a quick information round, but chooses a quiet rhythm and a poetic rather than narrative approach that offers space for reflection. This causes the underlying message to hit even harder. After “Abendland" and "Our Daily Bread" he now aims his camera at forgotten places. Thanks to the distant, recording attitude of the director, the scenes have an almost unearthly, weird, abstract beauty.