Fungal Magic, Narrated By Björk

With a superstar narrator, biophilia meets mycophilia in the new documentary Fungi: Web of Life

“I can’t actually take credit for the editing, for the camera work, for the directing, for the producing. All I had to do was walk around in a beautiful forest trying to look like I was having thoughts,” Merlin Sheldrake says from the stage of Reykjavík cinema Bíó Paradís and the audience bursts into laughter. The British biologist, whom The Guardian likened to “Timothée Chalamet playing a Cambridge academic,” is in Iceland for a special screening of Fungi: Web of Life, narrated by none other than Björk.

The event, held for the singer’s family and friends, marks the beginning of Merlin’s journey into promoting the fascinating world of fungi. Later that same week, he gave talks at the Glastonbury Festival about fungi and how they can deepen our understanding of what it means to be human.

While he might joke about his role in making the film, Merlin is far from a random inclusion in the 45-minute documentary by Gisela Kaufmann and Joseph Nizeti. With a PhD in tropical ecology and expertise in mycorrhizal fungi, Merlin essentially became the face of fungi after his 2020 book, Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, became a global bestseller. He joined the film as a presenter, embarking on a journey around the world to showcase some of the strangest and grandest fungi there are. Through interviews with experts and innovators, he also gave audiences a sneak peek into how these organisms can be harnessed for the benefit of humanity — for instance, a source of eco-friendly polystyrene alternative or even vegan leather.

Merlin Sheldrake photographed in London, December 2019, by Hanna-Katrina Jędrosz.

Art meets science

Björk, who has hinted over the years that she’d like to try her hand at being David Attenborough, joined Merlin in making the film, resulting in an incredibly quirky combination. Her fungi obsession truly mushroomed with her 2022 album, Fossora. The album includes several tracks that pay homage to mushrooms and Björk herself admitted to watching nature documentaries, like Fantastic Fungi, while making the album. Around the same time, before the release of Fossora, Björk was introduced to Merlin.

“With films, you need a narrator and the question was, who do you ask?” Merlin speaks of the idea of reaching out to Björk. “My wife suggested asking Björk and that was a brilliant idea. I can’t imagine anyone else doing it as well as she does.”

“Björk brings magic to the project but also speaks a story with such an inviting curiosity.”

Björk opens up the film with the line, “The living world is connected by a hidden kingdom of life we’re just beginning to understand.” She delivers the words with her recognisable intonation and unique timbre, yet her inclusion in the film doesn’t steal the spotlight from its main characters — the fungi.

“I think it’s really helped the movie to have her on board,” Merlin continues. “She brings magic to the project but also she speaks a story with such an inviting curiosity that really helps people to come along for the journey and to feel at home in what might seem like an alien world. People have really liked it.”

According to Merlin, the script was developed in close collaboration with himself and other scientists, ensuring that everything was scientifically accurate. “Everything I said and a lot of what Björk said I was responsible for,” he says.

Despite not participating in the Q&A and declining to do interviews, Björk attended the June 24 screening. The singer showed up to see the fruit of her labour wearing a fungi-inspired outfit: a sporulating piece covered in hand-applied silver beads and a mask with mushroom lamellae.

3D mushrooms

The film was originally produced in 3D for IMAX but is also available in 2D and Dome formats. Iceland doesn’t have an IMAX screen and, while the audience seems to be dazzled by the visuals of giant, luminous mushroom choreography, Merlin remarks, “What we’re seeing now is a smaller version of the story.”

The time-lapse photography of fungi, delivered by a team of photographers including Steve Axford and Wim van Egmond, offers a mesmerising insight into the world of fungi, bringing them to “a scale that makes us feel small.”

“I like the idea of letting the fungi speak and letting them do a lot of the heavy lifting. Because so much of our lives as humans is thinking that we’re big in some way, thinking that we’re strong, thinking that we can do so many things,” says Merlin. “Of course, we can. But it’s very often the case that smaller organisms, or organisms that appear small, or don’t appear to us at all, are really running the show.”

“I like the idea of letting the fungi speak.”

The time-lapse sequences of fungi were the most challenging and time-consuming aspect of making the film. Although Merlin admits he wasn’t directly involved in that part of the project, he gained incredible insights while observing the work of photographers. “Wim, the Dutch photographer, who does the mycelial time-lapse, he’s such an artist. No one’s been able to get this kind of time-lapse before,” says Merlin, explaining that some shots would require days or even weeks to create.

“He’s a kind of artisanal craftsman, he tries and tries and tries and eventually things work and it’s not just the cameras that got to work but the fungi you’ve got to show up, they got to perform as well.”

Fungi fever

“Mushrooms are totally having a moment,” Merlin tells me during a call a few days after the film’s Iceland premiere. One reason for that, according to him, is the overall advancement in science and technology.

“We know more about fungi today than we did a few years ago, because the techniques that we can use as scientists have improved. We know more about how amazing they are and what they do,” he says. The current interest in fungi has been partially driven by the resurgence of interest in psychedelics, but Merlin says the possibilities are much broader — one day, fungi could help humanity adapt to modern crises. “There are many countries where fungi have long been cherished and celebrated. The North Atlantic English-speaking countries are just catching up,” Merlin explains, adding that the fungal research seems to be slowing down because of very expensive human clinical trials. “You can’t patent these natural products, so there’s not a great incentive for companies to spend billions of dollars on the trials.”

With a fungi fascination dating back to his childhood, Merlin describes the film as a fun watch even for scholars like himself. “I’m happy with how the film sets up this world, how it invites people in, how it explains the fungal world from a fungal point of view before it talks about how fungi can be useful for humans,” he says. “Those who spend their life studying fungi, can still enjoy watching these astonishing timelapses and spending time in this inverted world where fungi are bigger than us.”

Fungi: Web of Life is screening at Bíó Paradís in Reykjavík, as well as at multiple museums and cinemas around the world. See listings: fungimovie.com/theatres