The title of Simon Lec’s documentary has a double meaning. Firstly, ‘human race’ refers to the scientific research that our main character, the Danish evolutionary geneticist Eske Willerslev, is pursuing at Copenhagen and Cambridge Universities – and which has taught us, among many other things, that there is no such thing, scientifically speaking, as different human ‘races’ – there is only one.
Secondly, it points to the competition Willerslev is involved in with his two main rivals, research teams led by David Reich at Harvard and Svante Pääbo at the Max Planck Institute: who will achieve the greatest breakthroughs in sequencing the ancient human genome?
Throughout the film, for which Danish director Lec and his team followed Willerslev for five years, this dichotomy between scientific research and social competitiveness remains evident.
The reward in the first category is the growth of knowledge and potentially the reduction of human suffering; Willerslev’s research team focuses on what ancient DNA, taken from skeletons held at museums or newly unearthed at excavations, can tell us about the development of mental illness, specifically schizophrenia, depression and other disorders with a known strong genetic component.
The reward in the second category is fame. “We’ll get the fucking Nobel Prize!” Willerslev exclaims at one point, assuming their research goes as planned. (If you do not already know which of these research teams would indeed be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2022, then I won’t spoil it here – but you can easily look it up.)
Similar approaches are common in biographical documentaries about famous people in the arts and sciences. Usually, the focus is more on the personal life of the celebrity than on really trying to analyse what they’re famous for. Human Race is no exception.
Fortunately, Willerslev is a forceful personality. His heavily accented and enunciated English sounds as if he wants to physically push the research forward with each word. And while his drive for recognition is unmistakable – everyone around him seems to agree that winning the Nobel Prize is his ultimate motivation – he is also open to discuss his character with, for example, his mother.
Meanwhile, the dramaturgy of the film and the accompanying soundtrack (written by director Lec himself) build to successive crescendos, giving an impression – perhaps somewhat exaggerated – of the pressure under which the researchers are working.
The content of this remarkable research, unfortunately, plays second fiddle. It’s the scientist, not the science, that’s most in the spotlight. But the science is why we’re interested in this person in the first place.
This inversion, of the art being obscured by the artist, the science obscured by the scientist, where we focus on the person rather than their creations – even though it’s those creations which are the only truly extraordinary thing about them – is my main issue with many, if not most biographies of famous creatives. Including this one.
Because, however brilliant and interesting their creations may be, that doesn’t mean the person behind them is necessarily equally remarkable. And if the filmmaker thinks that yes, this person is, then their film should take a clear position on the reasons why. Human Race, however, touches upon aspects of Willerslev’s personality that play an important role in his life, such as an absent and fearsome father, a period of suicidal thoughts and – amusing, of course, for a geneticist – his genetically identical twin brother with whom he has been in competition all his life, without really delving deeper into any of them.
Willerslev’s suicidal tendencies are presented so abruptly, that it’s almost shocking: we suddenly see him with a gun in his mouth, after which we learn that this is a re-enactment of an event in his past. There follows a brief conversation about being young and not realising things will get better, but that’s it. There is something sensationalist about opening a scene like this and something reckless about then treating the subject with so little depth: I think the warning for viewers with suicidal thoughts, at the end of the documentary, finds extra justification in the brusqueness with which the subject is treated. (The impact partner of Human Race is TheGlobal Anti-Stigma Alliance, which aspires to eliminate the stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness worldwide.)
Twin brother Rane, meanwhile, does not appear until an hour into the film, and they are never on screen together. There are surely reasons for this, but the result is the same: the subject is hardly explored in depth.
The same is true of the science itself – which, to me, is much more interesting. Everybody has family issues, but not everybody collects more than 5,000 samples of ancient human genomes, going back tens of thousands of years, to build a genetic database which could help us understand modern-day mental illness.
The moral, cultural and political controversies surrounding the scientific use of human specimens are also not addressed in any deep and meaningful way. The research team seems to regard them mainly as practical obstacles. When one of Willerslev’s junior researchers describes the fierce competition in their field, he concludes: “I think that’s partly because we’re all fighting over a limited number of human remains.”
It’s Willerslev’s conversations with biological psychiatrist Thomas Werge which provide the most insight into their scientific considerations. One of the most interesting findings from their data is that what we call ‘mental illness’ (or aspects inextricably intertwined with it) most likely had beneficial effects for our ancestors. This research seems to indicate a genetic overlap between, for example, schizophrenia and creativity, and autism and intelligence, such that you couldn’t ‘remove’ one from our genome without destroying the other. Which means, as Willerslev concludes: “It’s really about finding the environment that suits you best. Instead of attempting to alter who you are – because you can’t.”
Unfortunately – and frustratingly, for a documentary based on such revolutionary research – this is one of but a few times the film dwells on the deeper implications of this fascinating science, of which we will no doubt hear much more in the future.
Denmark/United Kingdom/Norway/Germany/Switzerland/United States, 2025, 100 minutes
Director Simon Lec
Production Move Copenhagen
Producers Jacob Levin Krogh
Script Simon Lec
Cinematography Benjamin Kirk
Editing Simon Lec, Michael Bauer, Anders Villadsen
Sound design Sylvester Holm, Frank Mølgaard Knudsen
Sound Sylvester Holm, Eske Nørholm
Music Simon Lec
With Eske Willerslev
If you or someone you know is suicidal, you can follow this link to find national hotlines.
