Der Kongress der Pinguine
CH 1993 90'
Director: Hans-Ulrich Schlumpf
Script: Gertrud Schlumpf
Camera: Pio Corradi, Patrick Lindenmaier
Sound: Dieter Meyer, Dieter Lengacher, Florian Eidenbenz, Hans Künzi
Editing:: Fee Liechti
Music:: Sergej Rachmaninov, Camille Saint-Saens, Bruno Spoerri
Production:: Ariane Film AG
Pass:Der Kongress der Pinguine (D)
540p Deutsch ST -
Pass:Der Kongress der Pinguine (E)
540p English ST -
Pass:Der Kongress der Pinguine (F)
540p Français ST -
The real location of the penguins' congress is at the same time the most fictitious place on earth, where even animals can talk. This country of dreams and nightmares is called the Antarctic. A few dozen people live here in the ice desert surrounded by turbulent seas, and they use highly sophisticated instruments to observe the disquieting changes in our world: the hole in the ozone layer, alterations in the climate, etc.
Where do dreams come from?
When they are restless, they come from tranquility.
When they are calm, they come from restlessness.
When they are cold, they come from the heat.
When they are hot, they come from the cold.
But always they bring you a message
from the distant provinces of your deepest self.
And if you still have understood nothing,
they already know everything.
Franz Hohler 1993 for THE CONGRESS OF THE PENGUINS.
The Antarctic conjured in vision and nightmare: where ghost towns like Grytviken crumble at the sea's edge
but betray evidence of past slaughter, of veritable holocausts of hundred of thousands of whales, penguins and seals. Where the research vessel 'Polarstern' ploughs through frozen seas. And where a handful of scientists inhabit immemorial deserts, monitoring signs of changes in our world. The animals can talk: and for us, their message holds no comfort.
Sorely Macdonald, 18th Cambridge Film Festival