The Coriolis Effect

Petr Lom, Corinne van Egeraat

A cinematic meditation on life in the eye of the storm, set in Cape Verde, the birthplace of powerful hurricanes. On these dry, wind-swept islands, humans and animals reveal a universal will to survive. Fueled by the Coriolis effect and rising sea temperatures, storms grow ever more destructive. A centipede crosses the desert; workers clean a dry well after years without rain; a turtle struggles across a polluted beach; a fisherman is lost at sea. Amid hardship, care persists: a naturalist rescues injured turtles, volunteers battle endless ocean waste. The film centers all living beings equally, portraying life as sacred. Echoing Vasco Martins, it suggests we are all on a shared pilgrimage, ungrateful guests who still deeply love the Earth.

the Netherlands, Norway 2025, '110

DIRECTOR: Petr Lom, Corinne van Egeraat

SCENARIO: Petr Lom, Corinne van Egeraat

CAMERA: Petr Lom, Runar Jaarle Wiik

MONTAGE: Gys Zevenbergen

MUSIC: Vasco Martins

PRODUCERS: Corinne van Egeraat, Mette Cheng Munthe-Kaas

PRODUCTION: ZIN Documentaire, Ten Thousand Images

FESTIVALS & AWARDS:

Dokufest
Mirage FF
Millennium Docs Against Gravity FF
Nederlands FF
Movies that Matter

Petr Lom

Petr Lom was born in Prague in 1968, grew up in Canada, and is now based in The Netherlands with his Dutch partner and producer Corinne van Egeraat. He received his Ph.D. in political philosophy from Harvard and was Associate Professor at George Soros’ Central European University in human rights and philosophy. In 2003, he became an independent documentary director and cinematographer specializing in human rights film. His award-winning films have been broadcast in over thirty countries and screened at more than four hundred and fifty film festivals around the world including Sundance, Berlinale, Locarno, Rotterdam, Venice and IDFA. His filmography: Bride Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan (2004); On a Tightrope (2007); Letters to the President (2009); Back to the Square (2012); ANA ANA (“I am me” in Arabic, 2013); Burma Storybook (2017); Angels on Diamond Street (2019); Letter to San Zaw Htway (2021) and I Am The River, The River Is Me (2023). He was the storytelling coach and editor of Myanmar Diaries (2022) which won the 2022 Berlinale Documentary Award. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS).

Corinne van Egeraat

Corinne van Egeraat and Petr Lom are an internationally recognized filmmaking couple whose award-winning work has premiered at Berlin, Venice, IDFA and Sundance and has screened at over 450 festivals around the world and broadcast in more than 30 countries. Specializing in creative urgent stories that reflect their values of dedication to justice, their goal is ego-less filmmaking, that itself is a political act: collaboration without competition, made in the faith that cinema has a transformative power to enlarge our hearts and inspire us to embody our better selves. They are both members of the Academy of Motion Picture Art & Sciences (AMPAS).