Salmonberries

I'll watch anything with k.d. lang in it, but this movie is remarkable for much more than its star. Every part of the movie is exquisite -- the cinematography is incredible, the acting is intense, the music is powerful, and so on. Each character is beautifully developed as far as necessary for the story. I can't even find further words for this movie. I have seen a lot of movies, and to date there are only two I really believe in. This is one of them.

Salmonberries is a beautiful film that is set in one of the harshest environments on Earth, in Kotzebue, Alaska. The story reveals many deep layers that overlap and entwine, and discovering those layers is powerfully insightful. I know I will never forget the characters of this film: Butch, Roswitha and Kotz. Getting by in such an environment would be incredibly difficult – the wind and the cold being the main factors. People are forced to live closely side-by-side simply for survival. Bingo Chuck represents all that could be wrong or unpleasant in such an environment. Butch represents that all obstacles and unpleasantness can be risen above to find one's own Nirvana, and he does so stunningly. One of the most beautiful films I have ever seen and I am so thankful to the Adlon family for their touching and honest perceptions, their tender ability to see the beautiful and the destructive and to offer it as Salmonberries. And many thanks to Conrad Gonzales.

This movie takes place in a remote Alaskan village, in a landscape that is bleak and stunning at the same time. Two lonely souls-both outsiders, in a sense-meet here and slowly fall in love. One is a native of East Germany who works as the village librarian. The other is a young transgender man, abandoned at birth, obsessed with finding his biological parents. There is also an excellent supporting cast portraying the people who live in this small town, fighting the rough environment and finding happiness and fun where they can. The plot is filled with twists, sadness, and even comedy-and the Alaskan scenery is breathtaking.

Kd lang. In alaska. She's kotz, trying to find out who her family was, and where they came from. She works in the mine, passing as a man. And lacks some basic skills in dealing with society. But she makes friends with switha, the town librarian, who also wants to know what became of her own family. So off they go, on their journey. Do they love each other? Can they find the physical side of their love and friendship? And will everyone find their past? A smaller role for chuck connors. Good stuff. Lots of long pauses. Sweeping scenes of alaska. Some songs sung by lang herself. Directed by percy adlon, who had directed one of lang's music videos. And wrote this film specifically for lang. At the very end, the producers thank the people of kotzebue and the elders of kikiktagruk.

There is a dream sequence in the movie, a concert given by Chuck Connors, where he runs through a transparent foil on which is written "Germany". Kotzebue is named, as we hear from the lesson hold by Rosel Zech in her library, after the German August Von Kotzebue. And then there is Roswitha herself, living since 21 years in this icy asylum, escaped from the German Democratic Republic, cheated by her brother, her husband killed. The West would not have been an alternative, it had to be the land of the Eskimos that had been settled since the early 18th century mostly be the missionaries of Herrnhut, Germany. "Alaska is my home", Roswitha says later.

There is an outer and an inner story in this movie. The outer story is the extraordinary and partly one-sided friendship by an androgynous native and the German librarian. This story is, frankly, mediocre. But much more important, it seems at least to me, is the inner story: Imagine you are 21 years exiled in Alaska and now you have suddenly the chance to fly to Berlin, your home-town, and exactly at the time when the East German Wall falls which kept you exiled for such a long time. When outer things collapse, then there is always the problem how your inner reacts, how you hold it back from also collapsing. I think this is what this movie is really about, and I also think that this is the reason, why the climax, the landing of the machine of Alaskan Airlines in Tempelhof, is prepared by the stunning beauty of the remote landscape of the former Air Force Station at the Arctic Sea. As long you are in asylum, you represent this asylum and if it be only for you alone. This is why Alaska is Germany, and, as we heard, not only for Roswitha. If you are not convinced that I am right, ask yourself about this short scene with the tightrope walker, or have you missed it? Shortly after the landing of "Kotz" and Roswitha in Berlin. - Nietzsche, Zarathustra, chapter 6, correct.