Chamisso’s Shadow, Part 3: Kamchatka and Bering Island
In her latest film, shot in the far north in 2014, Ulrike Ottinger takes us to the region between America and Eurasia. She forces us to behold the waters of the Bering Sea and the volcanic land there, the flora, fauna, and people of a place where nationalities and cultures have mixed. We get to see what their present day looks like as contemplated by Ottinger's attentive lens, as well as their history, which has been determined by global economic and geopolitical interests. She gathered information from researchers such as Humboldt, Steller, and especially Adelbert von Chamisso, a German writer and botanist who traveled this area in 1815-1818 on board the Russian ship Rurik, a voyage he described in his diary. With the help of nature photos, interviews with local people, and her own original commentary, the director crafts a similar diary. Referring to Chamisso's concept of a person without a shadow, condemned to wander in search of an identity, she creates a monumental, nearly 12-hour artistic and ethnographic essay that combines historical accounts with a personal vision and reflections on just what travel really is in essence.
Part 3
Kamchatka and Bering Island
Adelbert von Chamisso's trip from Alaska to Kamchatka took one year. Ottinger was also in no hurry, as she shows the peculiarities of a peninsula rich with fauna and flora that once delighted the German traveler. In addition to nature, we also learn about the complicated history of these lands and their inhabitants today, who share their thoughts and way of life in the last chapter of Chamisso's Shadow.
Ulrike Ottinger
Ulrike Ottinger is a German artist and director. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. She spent the 1960s painting and doing photography in Paris. In 1973, she founded her own production company in Berlin, where she has been living up until the present. She also made her first documentary in 1975, Laocoon & Sons, and she made her first full-length feature film in 1978, with the surreal Madame X: An Absolute Ruler, which featured a performance by underground icon Tabea Blumenschein from the group Die Tödliche Doris. In the 1980s, she was also involved in set design for stage plays, including for productions by Elfriede Jelinek, whose Farewell was presented again in 2000 on the stage of the Berliner Ensemble. Ottinger's original, interdisciplinary work consists of documentaries, feature films, and experimental films that can often be described as artistic forays into the territory that separates these forms. As opposed to conventional means of expression, Ottinger seeks prescriptions that differ from official arrangements and traditions, especially in Eastern cultures. Since making her eight-hour Taiga, she has consistently challenged viewers, including in terms of the length her films. Being at the same time the director, writer, producer, and cinematographer, her films are absolutely her original works in every sense.
Selected filmography
1978 Madame X - absolutna władczyni / Madame X - Eine absolute Herrscherin / Madame X: An Absolute Ruler
1984 Dorian Gray w zwierciadle prasy brukowej / Dorian Gray im Spiegel der Boulevardpresse / Dorian Gray in the Mirror of the Yellow Press
1989 Mongolska Joanna D'Arc / Johanna D'Arc of Mongolia / Joan of Arc of Mongolia
2002 Südostpassage / Southeast Passage
2011 Pod śniegiem / Unter Schnee / Under Snow
2016 Cień Chamissa / Chamissos Schatten / Chamisso's Shadow