Chamissos Schatten
Chamisso's Shadow![](/media/filmstills/2016/forum/201614564_1_RWD_1380.jpg)
Chamissos Schatten, 2014 © Ulrike Ottinger
![](/media/filmstills/2016/forum/201614564_1_RWD_1380.jpg)
Kap Atschchen
Chamissos Schatten | Chamisso's Shadow by Ulrike Ottinger
DEU 2016, Forum
Chamissos Schatten, 2014 © Ulrike Ottinger
![](/media/filmstills/2016/forum/201614564_2_RWD_1380.jpg)
Lager der Meeresjäger Inahpak
Chamissos Schatten | Chamisso's Shadow by Ulrike Ottinger
DEU 2016, Forum
Chamissos Schatten, 2014 © Ulrike Ottinger
![](/media/filmstills/2016/forum/201614564_3_RWD_1380.jpg)
Mariya Andreevna und Vladislav Sergeevich
Chamissos Schatten | Chamisso's Shadow by Ulrike Ottinger
DEU 2016, Forum
Chamissos Schatten, 2014 © Ulrike Ottinger
It starts with "Peter Schlemihl's Miraculous Story", which tells of a man travelling the world in seven-league boots. Adelbert von Chamisso wrote the tale before setting off to Russia on scientific expedition in 1815. He analysed the flora of Alaska and then explored the Northwest Passage, just like Cook and voyager Bering had done previously, the latter with physician and naturalist Steller in tow.
A porthole reveals the view. Thus begins Ottinger's journey from Alaska to Kamchatka via Chukotka, with her predecessors’ log books to accompany her on her way. While she describes Steller's texts as "dramatic", she considered Chamisso's diaries lively and sympathetic. Ottinger also keeps a log book that bears the mark of her ethnographic and artistic interests which are also seen in images: water, fish, sea otters, stones, volcanoes, the tundra, houses, villages, photographs, objects, maps. The people she meets talk about their lives, about the past and present. She shows them working, singing and fishing, again and again. Time here doesn't mean the film's length but rather the centuries existing alongside one another, the time you gain in the cinema.
A porthole reveals the view. Thus begins Ottinger's journey from Alaska to Kamchatka via Chukotka, with her predecessors’ log books to accompany her on her way. While she describes Steller's texts as "dramatic", she considered Chamisso's diaries lively and sympathetic. Ottinger also keeps a log book that bears the mark of her ethnographic and artistic interests which are also seen in images: water, fish, sea otters, stones, volcanoes, the tundra, houses, villages, photographs, objects, maps. The people she meets talk about their lives, about the past and present. She shows them working, singing and fishing, again and again. Time here doesn't mean the film's length but rather the centuries existing alongside one another, the time you gain in the cinema.
Additional information
![](/media/bilder/2016/boulevard_2016/12_02/160212_dl_0295_ORG.jpg)
Hanns Zischler, Ulrike Ottinger, Christoph Terhechte
The German actor, the director and the section head at the premiere in the Haus der Berliner Festspiele.
Chamissos Schatten · Forum · Feb 12, 2016
![](/media/bilder/2016/boulevard_2016/12_02/160212_dl_0308_ORG.jpg)
Group photo
The team on the stage of the Haus der Berliner Festspiele.
Chamissos Schatten · Forum · Feb 12, 2016
Chamissos Schatten | Chamisso's Shadow
Film Excerpt