“Jamais-vu is the opposite of déjà vu. A place that is actually familiar is perceived as foreign.” LANDEN follows its protagonist on her botanical journey from the german Wadden Sea to the coast of Lebanon. As she collects material for her herbarium, she witnesses the consequences of Lebanon’s economic collapse and decay. The plants become her only constant navigation through fragile terrain. Along fragile ecosystems she loses herself between modernist architecture in Tripoli or at the banks of the Beirut River to find some hope for a future after the fall near a growing micro-forest project.

This documentary is an essay about coastlines and plants, adaptation and change, resilience and loss, about nature reserves, about crises and hyperinflation, about Lebanon and also about Germany.

Vanessa Nica Mueller lives and works as a freelance director, editor and producer in Hamburg. In her artistic essay films, she deals with questions of memory, the human being in relation to urban space and nature at the interface between art and science. She studied Film and Time-Related Media at the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg. In addition to realizing her own films, she works as a film lecturer and occasionally curates film screenings. She is interested in non-linear and interactive narratives. Her short films have been shown at international film festivals and within the framework of exhibitions.

Filmography (selection): 2011 TRACES OF AN ELEPHANT, 2016 PLATEAU (both short films), 2023 LANDEN