La reine des papillons

In this surrealist silent-era fable, Nina Starr portrays a young woman whose singular act of compassion toward a vulnerable caterpillar triggers a tectonic shift in her reality. After sparing the creature's life, Nina descends into a feverish dreamscape where she is heralded as the 'Butterfly Queen,' a sovereign of the insect realm. Her newfound reign is short-lived, however, as the malevolent King of Spiders—a grotesque personification of predatory instinct—abducts her to his dark domain. What follows is a visually inventive rescue mission, where the collective might of her winged and multi-legged subjects rises to challenge the arachnid tyrant. The film serves as a primitive yet potent exploration of the karmic cycle and the boundary between the mundane and the mythological.