Parky at the Pictures (In Cinemas 20/7/2018)

Entitled `Alaska and the Aleutian Islands', Chaper One opens with a passage from Peter Schlemihl's Miraculous Story, an 1814 novella about a man who sells his shadow that was written by German poet and naturalist Adelbert von Chamisso (1781-1838), In voiceover, Ottinger explains how she had always loved tracing the outlines of maps with her fingers and had decided to follow the route taken by Chamisso on an 1815-18 trade and research expedition aboard the Rurik, a ship skippered by Otto von Kotzebue on behalf of Count Romanzov of St Petersburg. Ottinger intends comparing her experiences with those of Chamisso, as well as such other intrepid travellers as Captain James Cook and Georg Wilhelm Steller, who had accompanied Vitus Bering on his second expedition in the early 1740s. 

An extract from Chamisso's journal (read by Hanns Zischler) reveals how the Rurik arrived in Avacha Bay and the crew spent a pleasant time in the sleepy harbour of St Peter and Paul, where Chamisso supped well on fine wine and was delighted to discover a library of useful books. Captain Cook (Thomas Thieme) also ventured into this part of the world while searching for the Northwest Passage and Ottinger heads up the Cook Inlet to explore the islands off the coast of Alaska. She sees a bore tide rolling in and watches some fishermen gutting their catch before learning from Fr Mikel Bok about the significance of the spear house graves in an Athabascan cemetery. 

Following in Cook's footsteps, Chamisso visited the island of Kodiak, which Chamisso and learned that the Aleutians had perfected acoustic navigation by using the sounds generated by natural weather buoys to determine conditions out at sea. A passage about Kamchatka follows from Steller's journal (read by Burghart Klaussner) before we hear the fable of the fur trader and the Sea Otter Maiden. Over charming footage of sea otters frolicking in the water, this mournful tale is contrasted with Steller's observations of the animals' behaviour, which he concludes with a discussion of how they taste and the different ways in which their meat can be served. Ottinger reveals that as the Aleutians believe that sea otters are metamorphosed humans, they insist on killing them with specially decorated `kamleikas' in order to show suitable respect. 

On the island of Afognak, Ottinger hears the origin myth of a woman mating with a man who had metamorphosed from a whale and she attends the Potlach festival, whose purpose is to spur the islanders on to greater deeds. After several shots of stuffed Kodiak bears, Ottinger also visits the Aleutic Museum, where guide Alicia Drabek informs her about `transformation art' using a carved totem that depicts a human and a raven from different angles. She also learns about masks and how human hair is often woven into artefacts according to shamanic tradition. However, much changed in the region after the introduction of the Russian Orthodox religion and the arrival of Russian and American traders. Yet, Drabek insists that the locals have remained true to their core values. 

Ottinger takes a ferry through the `Chain of Storms' and chats to passengers whose families had travelled to Alaska from across the world. A Swedish man describes how his relations had divided their time between hunting and working in a cannery and Ottinger wittily contrasts his recollection with Steller's 1741 account of a tentative first meeting with some Kamchadals, who proved both welcoming and wary. Despite the chief beckoning the sailors ashore, one elder was so affronted by the taste of brandy that they had to rescue their interpreters from the island and fire off some ammunition in order to facilitate their hasty retreat. 

Back on the ferry, Ottinger meets Lorraine Loyd, who is returning to Akutan for the first time in 20 years. She remembers there being no power on the island during her youth and muses on how her grandfather had eked out a living as a trapper and fisherman. Life was tough, but the sense of community was strong and Lorraine fondly recalls the winter festivities in January, when they sang old songs and savoured local delicacies. She regrets that the old ways had to change, but is glad that they are still celebrated in cultural centres. 

Captain Cook describes the layout of the island settlements he visited and notes that each had a totem pole called an `acweek', which seemed to guard over them. However, the chieftains were reluctant to explain their true significance. Chamisso came the same way and commended the intimidating beauty of Umnak and Unalaska. Ottinger also records the inclement weather before pausing to watch a fishing couple haul in their nets and toss gutted morsels for the birds to fight over. She meets Katherine Reedy, a researcher based on Unalaska who is interviewing Sharon Svarny about how she distributes her salmon catch. 

Sharon also goes to the nearby church, as Ottinger relates how American forces based in the Aleutians during the Second World War destroyed the evacuated buildings they found there to prevent them from falling into Japanese hands. Consequently, there is a much stronger affiliation to Russia, thanks largely to the 19th-century missionary, Fr Ioann Veniaminov, who converted the Aleuts, but allowed them to incorporate elements of their own culture into their spiritual rituals rather than simply eradicate them in the name of imperial progress. 

Fishing dominates the local economy and Ottinger takes us inside a factory to contrast the industrial methods with those of the couple feeding the birds on the shingle and those fishing with rods on the beach. Moving on to Nome, to the accompaniment of passages from Chamisso and Steller, Ottinger finds the rusting remnants of the Solomon railway and explains that a new gold rush began in the 2010s. But there's little sign of wealth in the wooden waterside settlement of Teller, where Ottinger watches some Yipik kids playing. She meets the garrulous Alma Smithheisler, who tells her about nearly being caught by a bear while out picking berries. Moreover, in addition to describing how to make Eskimo Ice Cream, Alma also sings a couple of songs in her native language and her  two grandchildren get the giggles and run off. 

After three effortlessly enjoyable and endlessly informative hours, Ottinger embarks upon Chapter Two, Part One - Chukota. Over a map owned by James Cook, she reveals that Chukota is on the Asian tip of the Bering Strait, which is only 80km wide at its narrowest point. A slow panning shot takes in the sights of Provideniya, where Ottinger had landed from Nome in 2014. Visiting the monument named after him, Ottinger explains that Vitus Bering was sponsored on his 1728 trek from Siberia to Kamchatka by Peter the Great. Local museum curator Igor Zagrebin shows her a portrait of Ukhsima Ivanovna Okshima, who was the first Yupik member of the Communist Youth Party. He describes the tattoos on her face and how the Soviets tried to outlaw the ancient practice. Yet, the new rulers also brought colour to the region, as clothing had previously been the shade of the skins from which it had been made. 

Ottinger finds traces of an Eskimo settlement near the beach and Chamisso describes his expedition's first encounter with them. He also confesses to finding a skull in the graveyard and taking it for the museum in Berlin. But the 50 villages that once dotted this area were depopulated by the Soviets, who wanted their occupants to live in collectives so that they could be controlled and their labour more readily exploited. Now, only five villages remain, with the residential blocks that replaced them having an ugly Soviet functionality, even though some residents have done their best to brighten them up with splashes of colour. 

We see Maja Ivanova Kaljakwun and Olga Letikaj cooking on the beach, as Steller describes in his journal how whale meat is smoked and blubber is steamed. Ottinger arrives in Novoe Chaplino, where Nikolai Eneut shows her how a bidarka boat was made from skin and wood and she watches some kids perform dances entitled `A Message for Uelkal', `Walrus Hunt' and `Two Ravens' to the strains of some chanting women who also provide the percussive accompaniment. Birdlife teems around the sheer cliff faces, as Ottinger takes a boat ride along the coast and meets a Igor, the local chief, who describes the gruesome technique of harpooning. He explains how the whole village used to have to help haul the catch up the beach and we see a model depicting such a scene in the museum. 

Chamisso eulogises about the whalebone yurts he witnessed close to the shore and Chukchi native Artur Apalu takes Ottinger to a long-demolished settlement. Steller offers grisly details of the Chukchi method of whale hunting and how an inflated bladder is used to tag the beast in case tries to escape. Eventually, however, it beaches itself in terrified exhaustion after being harpooned by three bidarka crews. Nowadays, the pursuit is undertaken in motor boats and Ottinger follows at a discreet distance as a whale is harpooned. However, the incompetence of the hunters results in the creature sinking to the bottom before it can be secured with ropes and it's hard not to feel revulsion that the entire brutal exercise has been pointless. Indeed, their failure is made all the more ignominious by Steller's account of how their ancestors allowed nothing from a catch to go to waste.

As Ottinger reveals how scarce firewood is in such exposed, windswept places, we hear Chamisso lament that a Chukchi graveyard was desecrated by unthinking sailors who didn't release that the dead were buried above ground and covered with wooden memorials. He feels guilty at being associated with such vandalism, even though he had earlier removed a skull from sacred ground. 

Igor's wife recalls how she had been transplanted to Yanrakynnot and how the community began to develop over time. She is thankful for the abundance of whales and reindeer and declares that they lack for nothing, even though some of the houses haven't been completed yet. At the local school, Ottinger is treated to a concert, with some of the girls sporting traditional costumes to perform `The Dance of the Reindeer Calves'. 

She also meets dog breeder Mikhai Tel'pin, as he prepares a dish of fish and whale meat for his sled team. They guzzle it down, as he explains how their summer diet is crucial to how well they run in the winter, when he enters them in competitions, as well as taking them ice fishing. Sitting in a sled, he describes how the dogs are harnessed and shows Ottinger how to steer and brake. In her snug home, Igor's wife gives a demonstration of how to chop herbs in order to preserve them for the winter, while her husband explains how they are used to season meat and fat. 

Down on the beach, Ottinger watches Wladislaw and Marija Ratwyrgin and their daughter Lenka cook crabs over a wood fire. Stiller describes how the  Olyutors catch whales with weighted nets and we see images and models of the technique before accompanying a fisherman to his village, where he joins his family for an al fresco picnic, complete with caviar. 

As Ottinger explains how shaman had to appease Sedna the sea goddess in order to ensure a plentiful supply of food, Artur shoot a seal and brings it to shore for skinning. This process is recorded in grim detail with a static camera before Katya the cook nips in with a tin cup to scoop out some blood, as she prefers raw food to cooked. As she washes strips of intestine in the sea, a caption informs us that everyone in the village will receive an equal portion of the kill. Another reveals that the pelt is washed in the sea to return some blood to the deep, just as a few of the seal's whiskers are cut off and scattered on the water. Eventually, the meat is carried back to the village in the skin, which is formed into a circular pouch to symbolise wholeness. 

The hunters go inland and build a fire to cook their hard-earned supper. A caption explains that a small slice of each piece of meat is given in sacrifice to the spirit of the place, while Steller records how he saw the locals garland the head of a creature they had killed in order to show it respect and to persuade it to inform its neighbours in the sea how well it had been treated and how grateful the people had been for their bounty. However, one can't help feeling that Steller, Cook and Chamisso have been somewhat marginalised in this segment, which often bears a similarity to such ethnographical studies as Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the North (1922) and Man of Aran (1934), as well as more recent outings like Sasha Gavron's Village at the End of the World (2012) and Mike Day's The Islands and the Whales (2016).

Nevertheless, Ottinger leads us into Chapter Two, Part Two - Chukota and Wrangel Island. Heading into the wilderness on a Vezdechod supply truck, she visits a Chukchi reindeer camp and examines the yaranga yurts in which the herders live. As we see the vast herd cross a shallow stream and spread out across a hillside, Igor's wife tells a fable about a herder being helped on a freezing cold night by a raven in human form. A young bull is roped by the antlers and swiftly dispatched and skinned, with the camera again hovering to catch every detail of the expertly performed process. Another animal is captured and its grunts of distress can be heard above the whistling wind on the soundtrack. 

Writing in 1816, Chamisso declares reindeer to be delicious after so much fish and oily bird meat. Back in 2014, a supply ship docks in the bay off Yanrakynnot and Irina Kutylina reminisces about how her family used to trade with their Alaskan relatives before the Soviets closed the border. She describes the clothing and the various kinds of meat that was exchanged, while Artur shows Ottinger a ceremonial plot where reindeer would be slaughtered to honour a dead herder and the bones would be formed into a memorial. 

As Chamisso records the jovial scenes that occurred when a Chukchi welcome party rowed out to the Rurik, Ottinger boards the Russian research ship, Professor Khromov, for the next leg of her journey through the Bering Strait to Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean. She notes how Mikhail Gorbachev and George Bush signed an accord to bring the Beringia Park into existence in order to preserve the precious eco system of this unique region. 

Chamisso passed the St Lawrence Islands during his voyage and relates how the locals allowed them ashore in return for tobacco and glass beads. Ottinger lands at the wealthy mineral port of Egvekinot, whose waterfront buildings appear to have been renovated to resemble Ballamory by Governor Roman Abramovich. By contrast, the gleaming white Orthodox church ostentatiously boasts cupolas made of newly mined gold. Vitus Bering had anchored here to take on supplies before searching for a land bridge or a passage route to the Americas and he redrew many of the maps of the area, which had been based on speculation and contained many islands that simply didn't exist. 

Steller also landed here in the hope of finding drinking water and he laments in his journal that his advice about the quality of the brackish pools was ignored. When precious metals were discovered in the hinterland, the Soviets had used Gulag labour to build a road and the local museum has a façade mural commemorating those who had perished in such pitiless circumstances. Another image seeks to atone for the mistreatment of the Chukchis and the Eskimos and Ottinger explains how the Soviets had driven the locals from villages like Naukan, even though it was one of the Siberian Yupiks' oldest settlements. Chamisso had found mammoth teeth and other fossils during his stay and Ottinger notes that the museum has a rare prehistoric rhinoceros on show. 

She reaches the easternmost point of Asia, which had been called East Cape by Captain Cook before it had been renamed Cape Dezhnev after the Cossack Semyon Dezhnev, who had sailed there as early as 1648. Contrasting the ruins of Naukan with the barracks that had been abandoned in 1990 during perestroika, Ottinger arrives in the fog-shrouded whaling town of Uelen, which takes its name from the Yupik for `end of the land'. With its wooden church, the amenities are pretty basic. But the children play happily and the locals perform several dances - `Meeting of Friends', `Very Small', `Preparing the Hide', `Walrus Dance', `Kayak Dance', `Our Fish Catch' and `Gopher Dance' - to the now familiar accompaniment of chanting and drums.  

Having watched a fisherman cast his net with a long pole, Ottinger leaves Siberia and heads for the islands of Kolyuchin and Wrangel. High above the puffins and penguin lookalikes perching on the former's cliffs is an abandoned meteorological station and Ottinger reports that some radioactive material was left behind and nothing has been done to remove it to safe storage. She films walruses playing in the water and describes how a shaman would interrogate the severed head of the first walrus caught each season to ask if the food supply would be plentiful. As always, body parts were returned to the sea as a mark of respect and so that the soul of the creature can return to its natural element. 

Over footage of a blue fox sniffing around for food, we hear Steller describe how the creatures ravaged the corpses of sailors who had been brought ashore suffering from scurvy. In addition to musing on their ruthlessness as predators, he also notes how watchful, cunning and mischievous they were, as they kept coming into the camp at night and pinching pieces of clothing and anything vaguely edible. 

On Wrangel, Ottinger meets wildlife ranger `Ivan the Friendly', who explains that all the dwellings have barred windows because polar bears come to the island to give birth. Botanist Laurie McHargue provides some insight into the tundra's hardy and diverse flora, while zoologist Nikita Ovsyanikov spots some polar bears devouring a whale carcass on Great Wrangel Island. Captain Cook records how easy it was to hunt walrus, as they seemed indifferent to the approach of humans until gunshots rang out and their panic made them easier to catch.

As winter is setting in, Ottinger's expedition leader decides not to press on and risk being stranded. Following a difficult passage to Kamak Bay, she goes to interview Vasili and Galina Reftetagin and their granddaughter, Margarita. They are seasonal residents and catch fish to exchange for meat with the reindeer herders from the neighbouring village of Neshkan, which they reach by dog sled or snowmobile. Ottinger learns that meat is stored in bundles called `kopalches', which are left suspended in the wind to make the meat so nutritious that humans and dogs can make long journeys after consuming it without feeling the cold. With the wind howling, Galina shows Ottinger the rows of fish drying outside their hut and jokes that she's a good film actor. 

Moving on, Ottinger passes the Ratmanov Islands of Big Diomede and Little Diomede, through which the dateline runs. She lands at Anadyr, the capital of Chukota, which boasts a similar colour scheme to Egvekinot, as it is also under Abramovich's jurisdiction. Curator Ekaterina Otke gives her a tour of the Ethnological Museum, where she sees a tapestry lauding Lenin for the bringing the light bulb and a 19th-century suit of Chukchi armour that prompts Artur to recall a local eccentric he had known as a child, who had told him all about the tribe's fighting prowess. Ottinger realises that this is the first place she has visited with paved streets in its centre and she lingers on the murals celebrating progress, as well as some youths playing football on an artificial pitch. 

As Chamisso describes a storm that left him unconscious on the deck, Ottinger's vessel rolls on heavy seas, as she ventures into Chapter Three - Kamtchatka and Bering Island. She feels grateful that the skipper uses old-fashioned nautical instruments, as well as radar, the radio and the Internet, and claims it makes her feel safe that they have tried-and-trusted back-up. Her confidence contrasts with Steller's despair that nobody onboard the St Peter appreciated the need for natural medicines, even though he had cured the captain's incapacitating scurvy with healing plants gathered from one of the islands. 

When Ottinger gets ashore, however, she finds a rusting Japanese fish factory boat, although she does film some of the flora that had so enchanted Chamisso when he had landed two centuries earlier. She comes across other wooden fish drying stations while sheltering from storms in Kamtchatka's inlets and pauses to revisit the Sea Otter Maiden and tell a story about the time the enchanted creature saw strangers on the beach and rushed to inform her husband, only for the visitors to disappear before she returns. 

As Ottinger gets closer to Bering Island, Steller recalls how the crew came close to mutiny when Bering refused to take shelter after several sailors had perished in a storm and some survivors feared that the mast would snap in the gale. Steller was relieved to reach terra firma and set about establishing a camp in Commander Bay so that the sick could be brought ashore. Among them was the captain, who died in the night (hence the island being named after him). By Christmas, dietary improvements meant that the crew had started to recover and Steller evidently enjoyed lording it over them, as he exerts a degree of control over their temporary settlement. He waxes lyrical about the sea cow and Ottinger sees a skeleton of the now extinct creature named in Steller's honour in the tiny museum in Nikolskoe, which also has exhibits about Bering and his expedition. We hear Steller's account of his burial and the how the crew broke up the St Peter after it had been beached and made a smaller vessel in a bid to reach the mainland. 

In the event, their departure was delayed by the abundance of wildlife using the island for summer birthing. But they set sail for Avacha Bay in August 1742 and Ottinger follows the same route, using the Kronotsky volcano as a guiding landmark. On reaching shore, she takes a small boat up the Zhupanova River and visits a factory that handles six different types of salmon. She moves on to Petropavlosk-Kamchatsky, where she films the scenery from the Golden Tower that she feels has ruined the town's aspect. Instead, she records a basking sea lion and visits a modern fish market before sampling the `banja' hot baths. 

Steller recalls how the Cossacks invaded Kamtchatka and subjected the Itelmen to a fur tariff known as `the iasak'. However, the interlopers forever shifted the quotas in order to enslave the locals and Steller reveals that the Cossacks often abused the women and gambled with the Itelmen, as if they were tokens. Keen to express his admiration for the oppressed, Steller lauds the excellence of their sled design and old etchings are intercut with views of the terrain, as he bemoans the fact that the dogs are so used to running as fast as they can that the drivers and passengers often get hit with branches while hurtling through the forest.

Ageing babushka Anna Sgarizyna show Ottinger how to collect sunflower seeds, while enthusing about her great-grandchildren. She wanders out to collect the post and drolly makes a big show of surprise at the postbox being empty. Indeed, many of the people Ottinger films play up to the camera, while others whisper to their companions about her being German. One man shows her how to catch a silver salmon with a simple line off a steep bank, but he  to throw it back, as he was only giving a demonstration rather than fishing for food. 

Ottinger reaches Dolinovka, a small fishing village on the Kamtchatka River, where teachers Irina Tjapkina and Galina Svedova tell her about how ecological everybody is and only take what they need from sustainable sources. Anything but bashful in front of the camera, the pair also discuss the local art of paper folding and making faces from sunflowers (with one of the examples in an amusing montage depicting Hitler). They also put on a musical mime about hunting and describe how the children rewrite traditional fairytales to warn each other about the dangers of drink and drugs. 

By contrast with this noisy burst of amiable activity, Ottinger films the birch and larch forests near the volcano and notes the silence around the fresh lava flows. The landscape is forbiddingly beautiful and Ottinger's reverential awe is tangible. Steller was also hugely impressed by life on the island and confides his surprise at the sight of the Itelmen sleeping outside in the snow and waking as though they had reposed on feather beds in the warm. 

Rain tipples down on the wooden buildings of Kozyrevsk, as Stiller praises the heroism of Itelman Ivar Asidem, who had refused to kow-tow to the Russians. Ottinger reaches the village of Anavgay, where a woman named Larissa pulls potatoes in her garden while telling her about the bears that prowl in the woods and try to steal food in the night. She loves the peace and quiet of her adopted home and wouldn't change her life for anything, especially not the rat race existence of the bourgeois tourists who come to hunt. Ottinger is impressed by the way the locals have connected pipes to the hot springs and notes the importance of dogs to the social and economic well-being of the people.

Sitting on the bank of a fast-moving stream, the elderly Lena Papo uses a mix of worms and dried caviar as bait in order to land her supper. She keeps catching tiddlers for the cat and reassures Ottinger that she knows what she's doing and isn't nervous at being in front of the camera. Suddenly, she starts reeling them in and the line is no sooner in the water than another fish bites. Lena tells Ottinger that one daughter runs a dental academy and the other a dance ensemble. But she was raised in an orphanage until the age of nine, when she was adopted by the local Party secretary and she is very proud of the fact he introduced greenhouses to Kamtchatka, as well as other reforms that helped improve living standards. Only towards the end of her diatribe, however, does Lena mention that she used to the head paediatrician at the local hospital. 

Ottinger contrasts her genial generosity of spirit with the surly mealiness of the ruling Cossacks, who are denounced as ogres by Steller in his book on the Occupation of Kamtchatka. Moving on, Ottinger meets Nadeshda Barkatova, who lives in a yaranga and keeps her stores in a stilted hut called a `balagan'. She recalls breeding reindeer and milking cows in her youth before admitting that she misses having a dog. Chattering away in her own language, Nadeshda wonders how much longer she has to live, but isn't bothered that her time will come sooner rather than later, as she sings a song and offers to do a dance. 

Heading south, Ottinger comes to Oktyabrsky, where rusting vessels and vehicles ruin the coastal scenery. But the main town is equally rundown, with Soviet-era tenements being dotted with satellite dishes. Ottinger regrets that everyone seems afraid of doing the wrong thing and, at her guesthouse, she is accosted by policemen searching for fishermen operating without permits or exceeding their quotas. This oppressive atmosphere evokes unwelcome memories of a past that has been eradicated elsewhere on the journey. But the defiance that defines the indigenous peoples lives on in the form of Alexander, an illegal fisherman who is furious that he isn't allowed to pursue the trade of his ancestors.

As she drives to the Bolsoiya estuary, Ottinger is challenged by some other fishermen, who have set up a camp on the banks. They refuse to be filmed and she avers that their mafia-like aggression makes them the latterday equivalent of the first Russians to come to Komtchatka and impose their will upon the people. It's a sobering end to a compelling journey, as Ottinger looks up at the pylons bestriding the misty landscape and wonders what words are passing along the electrical wires. 

In her early 70s when she embarked upon this remarkable project, Ottinger totally fulfils her ambition to combine `the logbook of imagination' and `the logbook of reality' into `a new creation: a spatial, poetic, and cinematic reality'. She may spend a little too much time watching creatures being eviscerated, but she has a magnificent eye for an image and her camerawork throughout is exemplary. Clearly, she also has a winning way with people, as she coaxes complete strangers to trust her with their reminiscences. Naturally, she owes debts to editor Bettina Blickwede and sound designer Stanislaw Milkowski. But it's the inspired manner in which she finds parallels between her own experiences and those of Steller, Cook and Chamisso that makes this epic enterprise so engaging, illuminating and thought-provoking.