Natality as world-building in Larissa Sansour and Søren Lind's In Vitro (2019)

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Abstract This paper examines Larissa Sansour and Søren Lind's film In Vitro (2019) as a site for reimagining world-building through Hannah Arendt's concept of natality. Set against the backdrop of intertwined colonial and climate catastrophes, the film reframes birth not merely as a biological or spiritual event but as a contested act of creation and renewal. Merging Palestinian historical trauma with global environmental emergencies, In Vitro critiques the colonial ideologies embedded in science fiction by reconfiguring its tropes—time folding, terraforming, and the bunker—into tools for decolonial and ecological thinking. The subterranean bunker, where the plot of the film takes place, becomes a womb-like space, where natality unfolds as a mode of world-building that transcends deterministic narratives and embraces the unpredictability of new beginnings. By questioning the inheritance of personal and collective memories, the film asserts that overcoming catastrophe requires not only technological innovation but also myths, stories, and the capacity to imagine unprecedented futures. Ultimately, In Vitro offers a vision of resilience and plurality, that includes humans and ecosystems, proposing alternative imaginaries for constructing a common world.