Amy and the wild geese

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Movie
German title Amy and the wild geese
Original title Fly Away Home
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1996
length 107 minutes
Age rating FSK 0
Rod
Director Carroll Ballard
script Robert Rodat ,
Vince McKewin
production John Veitch ,
Carol Baum
music Mark Isham
camera Caleb Deschanel
cut Nicholas C. Smith
occupation

Amy and the Wild Geese (original title Fly Away Home ) is a 1995/1996 film about the migration of Canada geese filmed in Canada .

The film is based on the true story of William Lishman , a Canadian inventor who first led Canada geese to the south in his microlight .

action

The 14-year-old Amy Alden is brought to Canada by her father Thomas after the accidental death of her mother, who lives in New Zealand . Thomas is an artist and earns his living with sculptures and bizarre inventions, and he is also an avid amateur aviator. Although Amy spent part of her childhood on the farm, she has hardly had any relationship with her father, from whom her mother separated years ago, and so the completely changed life in the new environment is very difficult for her. At least she finds a good friend in Thomas' partner Susan.

On her forays into the area, Amy discovers an orphaned clutch of a Canada goose in a cleared forest . She incubates the eggs in a drawer and eventually raises 16 young geese. The birds, imprinted on Amy , consider her a mother and instinctively follow her.

The fact that Amy's geese cannot learn to fly and how to travel south from their parents, as in the wilderness, leads to a dispute with a ranger from the nature conservation authority, who wants to trim Amy's geese's wings in accordance with regulations . He is following a regulation that hatched and embossed geese in captivity are not allowed to fly for their own protection - they would have an accident on a driverless flight south. But Amy is reluctant to mutilate her birds, and they throw the ranger out.

Thomas then came up with the idea of ​​showing the geese a way to the south with his microlight aircraft , but despite many attempts the geese did not recognize him as a leader. When Thomas thinks the project has failed, Amy secretly sits herself on his plane and starts the engine, whereupon the geese follow her immediately. Without any flight training, however, it can only go a few meters and makes a hard landing from a low height on a pasture fence.

Assisted by his brother David and friend Barry, Thomas is now starting to teach Amy to fly and getting her her own aircraft. You contact a bird conservationist in North Carolina who is in charge of a bird sanctuary that has not been visited by migratory birds recently and is therefore to be used as building land if no migratory birds arrive by a deadline . In order to preserve the nature reserve, it is decided to lead Amy's geese there.

On the evening before the scheduled departure, the ranger kidnaps the geese in order to clip their wings. They are freed by Thomas' friends in a spectacular action and taken on their journey by Amy flying past. Susan, David and Barry accompany the flight in the car.

There are a number of incidents, especially since the long flight is very exhausting for the untrained geese. After flying over Lake Ontario , shortly after sunset, the group landed with the last remaining fuel on a landing area that was barely visible on the shore, which, however, belongs to a US air force base. The commandant finally supports the two and also informs the press about the project, so that from now on the US media report benevolently about Amy and her father's plan. Later they get into the field of fire of a goose hunt, another time the navigation device fails because Amy's father did not charge the batteries, and they suddenly find themselves in the thick fog in Baltimore's street canyons. They are now constantly monitored by the TV media.

Shortly before the goal, Thomas crashes into a corn field due to a technical defect in his aircraft, is slightly injured and encourages Amy to cover the last 30 miles alone. Amy accepts the challenge and reaches the nature reserve with her geese shortly before the deadline.

In the following summer, according to the text, all 16 geese return to the Alden's farm on their own.

Awards

1997 was Caleb Deschanel in the category Best Cinematography Oscar nominations.

The German Film and Media Assessment FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the rating particularly valuable.

background

Amy's trike would be an ultralight aircraft under European law , but under US law it is an "ultralight vehicle", a single-seat flying device that can be flown without a pilot's license or driver's license. "Ultralight vehicles" must not fly faster than 55 kt (102 km / h), must still be airworthy at 25 kt (46 km / h), must not carry more than 5 gallons (18.9 l) of fuel and their curb weight is strictly limited to 254 lbs (115 kg) plus the total rescue system and float. There is no minimum age for the pilot and no registration requirement. Since they are expressly not considered to be airplanes, they can take off and land anywhere.

For information on the use of microlight aircraft to accompany migratory birds, see also their use in ornithological species protection .

Trivia

Thanks to his resemblance to Jeff Daniels, William Lishman himself appears in some scenes in the film: as a pilot of the microlight and as a motorcyclist who picks up Amy.

publication

The film opened in theaters on January 30, 1997 and was released on video on August 12, 1997. On April 6, 1998 it was first released on DVD and on April 9, 2009 on Blu-ray .

See also

literature

  • Patricia Hermes: Amy and the wild geese. Based on a script by Robert Rodat and Vince McKewin . (Original title: Fly Away Home ). German by Thomas Wollermann. Droemer Knaur, Munich 1997, 223 pages, ISBN 3-426-60657-7

Web links