Under Snow. 2011. Germany/Japan. Directed and cinematography by Ulrike Ottinger. with Takamasa Fujima and Kiyotsugu Fujima. DCP. In German; English subtitles. 103 min.
Director and cinematographer Ulrike Ottinger’s breathtaking, snow-blanketed journey through northwestern Japan blends history and present, fiction and reality. Ottinger strikes a magical-realist note unique in her five-decade career.
In Echigo in Japan, snow piles up meters-high and blankets the countryside and villages well into the month of May. The people have developed customs for their unusual daily life. Time follows a different rhythm: children build fanciful snow castles in which they cook and sing, the women weave colourful fabric and fix the dye by exposing it to the snow. In order to record their very distinctive forms of everyday life, their festivals and religious rituals, Ulrike Ottinger journeyed to the mythical snow country – accompanied by two Kabuki performers.
“Ulrike Ottinger’s film captivates with its awesome link of seriousness and mirth, sharpness and poetry, epos and ease, myth and history, tradition and modern age.” – Die Welt
“’Under Snow’ is a sensitive reflection with strong imagery of a region where people live half a year in snow. Ottinger’s special way of working allows a fascinating and poetic insight into the history and presence of the snow country.” (AVIVA)
