Imagine walking into a room filled from floor to ceiling with meticulously cleaned and preserved fish scales—a sight so surreal it defies explanation. This is the moment that inspired Victor Kossakovsky’s latest film, Trillion, a wordless documentary that’s as haunting as it is thought-provoking. But here’s where it gets controversial: the film isn’t just about the artist behind this bizarre collection; it’s a stark reminder of a staggering fact—over a trillion fish are pulled from the oceans annually for human consumption. And this is the part most people miss: Kossakovsky believes this number should shock us all into rethinking our relationship with the natural world.
After premiering Aquarela in Berlin, the acclaimed Russian director—known for works like Gunda and Architecton—received an email that would change his trajectory. ‘You understand me. I need to show you something,’ it read. Against his usual habit of ignoring fan messages, Kossakovsky agreed to meet the sender, K49814, an artist who has spent years collecting fish scales for a project of preservation and protest. Her home-turned-studio, brimming with these scales, became the catalyst for Trillion, which premieres at IDFA. Watch the exclusive trailer below:
K49814’s journey to a Norwegian island, where she returns thousands of scales to the ocean, forms the backbone of the film. Yet, the true subject isn’t her—it’s the larger, unsettling reality her work highlights. Kossakovsky’s documentary is a silent plea, a visual poem that forces viewers to confront the scale (pun intended) of humanity’s impact on marine life. Is this art? Activism? Or both? The director leaves that question open, inviting audiences to decide.
In an interview with Variety, Kossakovsky recalled his first encounter with K49814’s collection: ‘I opened the door, and it was like stepping into another world. She cleaned the scales in her bathroom, dried them by hand, and stored them in her living room. It was unbelievable. Nobody understood it.’ He admits that even his circle of esteemed writers and filmmakers struggled to grasp her mission. Yet, it was this very purity of purpose that inspired one of his most profound works.
‘When I made Gunda, I knew I had created something greater than myself,’ Kossakovsky reflects. ‘With Trillion, that feeling is even more intense. It’s my most important film because it’s pure documentary—simple, unfiltered, and raw. Every shot is a single take; we just followed her.’
Trillion marks the second installment in Kossakovsky’s ‘Empathy Trilogy,’ following Gunda. The five-year gap between the two films wasn’t just about securing funding—it was also about navigating the bureaucratic nightmare of transporting fish scales across borders. ‘Governments argued it might harm the ocean,’ Kossakovsky explains. ‘We had to jump through legal hoops just to return these scales to their origin.’ Is preserving nature really this complicated? Or are we making it that way?
Fortunately, Kossakovsky has allies in his quest, including actor Joaquin Phoenix, who serves as an executive producer on both Gunda and Trillion. The collaboration began after Phoenix’s Oscar acceptance speech for Joker, where he criticized humanity’s disconnect from nature. ‘I think we’ve become very disconnected from the natural world,’ Phoenix said, echoing Kossakovsky’s own sentiments. The director reached out, and the rest is history.
‘Joaquin is an open-hearted man,’ Kossakovsky says. ‘He watched Trillion with his family and immediately wanted to support it. He’s not afraid of strange projects, and that’s what makes working with him so beautiful.’ In a statement, Phoenix praised the film for offering ‘a much-needed perspective on our relationship with the natural world and how it needs to change.’
But Kossakovsky’s message goes beyond the screen. When asked about his focus on empathy, he points to a paradox: ‘I see so many good people in the world, yet we kill by the millions. We slaughter billions of animals annually—pigs, chickens, fish—and call it humanism. Tolstoy was right: killing is killing, no matter the victim. We have to stop.’ Is he right? Or is this an unrealistic ideal?
Trillion is produced by Anita Rehoff Larsen, Tone Grøttjord-Glenne, and Joslyn Barnes, with Phoenix, Susan Rockefeller, Frank Lehmann, Fridrik Mar, and Kaja Bjelke as executive producers. Anonymous Content handles world sales. But the real question is: will this film spark the change Kossakovsky hopes for? Only time—and the audience—will tell. What do you think? Is Trillion a wake-up call we desperately need, or is it too late to reverse the damage? Let us know in the comments.
