The Cosmic Egg synopsis

​

San rock art inspired the posthuman cyborg eco-myth in the VR film, The Cosmic Egg, written and directed by Moratiwa Molema and performed by the New Moon ensemble based in Gaborone, Botswana. In her traditional Motswana dance musical meets African Science Fiction film, anciently-futuristic African cyborgs perform an ostrich egg hunt, which turns into an eco-conscious time-travel mystery.

 

Evidence shows pre-historic cyborgs in San mythology and rock art depicting human-animal transhuman beings from as early as 27 000 BCE (Lewis-Williams 2011: 27). As such, The Cosmic Egg features human-animal-spirit-machine-cyborg dancers who urge us to consider environmentally sustainable practices, if we are to avoid paying the ultimate price for our collective environmental degradation.

 

Ostrich people play the protagonists in the film, where bird-human-cyborgs lay three metaphorical eggs, called Wisdom, Appreciation, and Harmony. Three time-travelling intergalactic wise women known as Egg Blessers arrive from the future when they restore eco-equanimity after a hunting party steals the eggs and drinks their cosmic muthi (African traditional medicine). The hunters become intoxicated and realise that these are not ordinary eggs.

 

The Egg Blessers restore environmental equilibrium as sound waves penetrate the shells of the eggs and cause the chicks to hatch into future-cyborg dancers.