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“ How camels become lions ” depicts the urge for freedom. Through 4 episodes we see 4 family members in a moment when they are tired of being a camel, as a beast of burden. They realise their tasks are meaningless and find themself in a spiritual desert. The camel wants to become a lion. A spirit that fights against the false values in order to find his own freedom. The title is based on “ Thus spoke Zarathustra ” by Friedrich Nietzsche. The character of Zarathustra confronts his audience with speeches. In his first speech he explains how you can become a free spirit through three transformations. The first stage is the one of the camel, willing to be controlled by others. During a second transformation, the camel becomes a lion, a rebel, who doesn’t allow anyone to tell him “ you shall ”. But, although the lion can react, he can’t create. For this, he needs to transform into a child. A child that thinks and acts independently of any structure. The characters of `How camels become lions` are in a transitional phase. Their state of discontent can be the beginning of a transformation to a lion, and who knows, afterwards, to a child.

Lydia Rigaux is a filmmaker born and living in Belgium. Her work navigates between fiction and documentary. An idea can start both from a fictional story or reality, yet during the process of making the film the line between those two becomes thinner due to the attempt to eliminate all false elements. Also the search of finding the “ right ” image to capture a situation or environment sweeps away that border. It appears to her that a certain moment or setting can only be captured in this one image, the “ right ” image. The dominance of this search controls the content and gives the film its own subject. In this way, the film creates its own reality.