SNAPSHOT
Fox Fires, a moving short from Scottish animator Keilidh, takes its inspiration from the ancient Finnish myth about the Aurora Borealis, which they call Revontulet. That translates to “Fox Fires,” as they believed a magical fox would run across the sky, sweeping the Earth’s snow with his tail, creating the light show that still causes awe and wonder to this day. (synopsis (c) Nerdist)
There is an exquisite, breathtakingly arresting quality to this luminously beautiful film.
Poetically explaining how the Aurora Borealis came to be, a gorgeous nighttime phenomenon known as Revontulet to the Finnish, Fox Fires demonstrates how powerful stories can be in shaping our view of the world.
As Nerdist points out, we actually understand the science behind the lights now in a way our ancestors didn’t …
“It hasn’t been all that long since mankind learned exactly what the stars are and where they come from. For hundreds of thousands of years, our ancestors looked up when the sun set and wondered how the evening sky came to be adorned with millions of twinkling lights. From their gazes, countless myths and stories sprung forth to explain the stars’ mysterious origins, many of which we still know as constellations like Aquila, Aries, Pisces, and the great bear Ursa Major.”
… and yet, there remains a powerful lure to stories such as Fox Fires, which matches the sheer majesty of the northern nighttime sky with a story befitting the awe-inspiring beauty it displays.
Watch it and be transported and moved, your appreciation of the transformative power of storytelling renewed in one strikingly-lovely and emotionally resonant short film.