Hidden Dance Of Eels

The global search for the eel's mysterious sex life.

Doxy

Elusive, hidden meandering in dark mud of ditches, rivers and ponds. For centuries we have tried to fathom the eel. But every time, this prehistoric animal manages to slip away.

Now that the eel is threatened with extinction, the search for the mystery of its reproduction takes on a new dimension. An international scientific expedition to the Sargasso Sea and a laboratory in Volendam are trying to fathom the riddle of the eel's reproduction with all their might.

In Japan, the eel is very popular as 'unagi'. Eel lover Kenichi Ikeda has fallen completely under the spell of the enigmatic animal, but he struggles: if he keeps eating eel, he contributes to the eel's extinction; if he stops, he loses his connection with nature.

The question is whether unravelling the mystery of the eel's reproduction is the only way to save it from extinction - or is its elusiveness precisely its salvation? Perhaps we should accept that the essence of the eel is a mystery.

Cast

Kenichi Ikeda
Reinhold Hanel
Rick Leemans

Credits

Written & directed by • Hans Dortmans
DoP • Erik van Empel NSC
Sound • Mark Wessner
Editor • Katarina Türler NCE & Patrick Janssens NCE
Music • Ernst Reijseger
Sound-designer • Luuk Hoogsraten & Zita Leemans
Grading • Michiel Rummens
Finishing • Jan Jaap Kuiper
Executive producer • Sylvia Baan
Producer • Janneke Doolaard & Harmen Jalvingh
Broadcaster • EOdocs
Distributor • M&N Media Group
Sales agent • Dutch CORE
With the support of • Nederlands Filmfonds, Netherlands Film Production Incentive, CoBO, NPO-fonds & VEVAM Fund

Stills