Odourless world: what smell means to those who don’t have it

While many might consider smell to be one of our less vital senses, it is nonetheless an integral part of most people’s conscious experience, entwining with our memories, giving us warnings of nearby dangers and subtly shaping our subjective world at any given moment. Anosmia – named for the condition it explores – bounces between interviews with a wide range of people who either lost or were born without the ability to smell. Using vivid, odour-evoking visuals, the US filmmaker Jacob LaMendola cleverly delivers a nuanced look at the experience of smell by probing the minds of those without it.