In The Beginning

Tonally absurd and colourful, "In the Beginning" features three true stories about humans shaping narratives on animals in their attempt to make sense of the absurdities of the world. One features the doomed space probe Beresheet that aimed to deposit a backup of human civilisation on the moon but ended up releasing microscopic tardigrades; another explores how legless specimens of Birds of Paradise exported to Europe in the 16th Century were widely believed to be otherworldly beings that lived forever aloft; and the last depicts Covid-era Hong Kong, where many hamsters were abandoned after authorities announced a cull as a precaution against animal-to-human transmission.