The ascent of the Chimborazo

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Movie
Original title The ascent of the Chimborazo
Country of production GDR , FRG
original language German
Publishing year 1989
length 93 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Rainer Simon
script Rainer Simon, Paul Kanut Schäfer
production DEFA , TORO-Film GmbH, ZDF
music Robert Linke
camera Roland Dressel
cut Helga Gentz
occupation

The ascent of Chimborazo is a German-German feature film by Rainer Simon from 1989. The film depicts the expedition that had come the furthest at the time to the 6267 meter high Chimborazo volcano in Ecuador and shows a historically significant excerpt from the life of the naturalist Alexander von Humboldt between the ages of 19 and 33. The premiere took place on September 7, 1989, just two months before the fall of the Berlin Wall .

action

In 1799, the German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt and the French botanist and doctor Aimé Bonpland set out for the “New World”, which at the time was a term for foreign countries and cultures outside the “well-known” continents of Europe, Asia and Africa. In 1802 they reached Ecuador and, together with the local nobleman Carlos Montúfar and a caravan, began to climb Chimborazo, which was then the highest mountain in the world. On the dangerous expedition, Humboldt examines, measures and registers plants, animals, rocks, water and air. He encounters the indigenous culture, which is alien to him, with great interest and open-mindedness, as it initially stands in great contrast to the German one for him. But in the course of his expedition he has to realize that the supposedly civilized Prussia shows more parallels to the supposedly primitive South America. This becomes clear to him, among other things, by comparing the exploitation of the local population with the conditions prevailing in his homeland. Despite their doggedness with which the men fight against snow, cold, orientation difficulties and thin mountain air, they do not reach the summit. However, you get to regions that no human has ever set foot before, and make it up to 5540 meters, which is higher than Humboldt had ever hoped for. Numerous flashbacks are embedded in the film sequences of the expedition, which illuminate Humboldt's previous life and also show the difficulties in preparing for his journey.

production

The film was made in the last few years of the GDR and was therefore extremely politically topical, as the young Humboldt's longing for distant countries was opposed to the limited freedom of travel in the GDR. In 1987 talks began between DEFA-Außenhandel and TORO-Film Westberlin. Filming began in June 1988. The main actor Jan Josef Liefers made his film debut in the role of Alexander von Humboldt. Originally, Tom Pauls provided for the role, but by the head of DEFA , Hans Dieter Mäde was repressive prevented to Paul in the filming of The hell with Harbolla to force. Claudia Michelsen - at that time still an acting student - made her film debut with a supporting role as Henriette Herz . The locations of this elaborate production were in Berlin, Jena, Paris, Spain and Totorillas in Ecuador. Rainer Simon moved on completely new territory for this. In Ecuador, the film team shot with local Indians, whose rites, everyday life and life were shown, giving the film a documentary character.

Reviews

Prisma describes the film as follows: “The director and screenwriter of the film Rainer Simon and his co-author Paul Kanut Schäfer intertwine the expedition to the Chimborazo in their film biography with numerous flashbacks that tell of stations in Alexander von Humboldt's life. Sometimes this dramaturgy seems a bit confusing because it tries to combine the various temporal and spatial levels of the narrative into a single, all-encompassing present. "

The lexicon of international films writes: “An image of life that strives for historical accuracy, but is not emotionally touching. With eloquent texts of current explosiveness. "

Awards

Further films

literature

  • Rainer Simon, Paul Kanut Schäfer: The ascent of Chimborazo - a film expedition in Alexander von Humboldt's footsteps. Cologne 1990, ISBN 3-8025-2200-1 .
  • Michael Wedel, Evan Torner, Barton Byg, Skyler Arndt-Briggs, Andyräder: DEFA International: Cross-border film relationships before and after the Wall was built. Wiesbaden 2013, ISBN 978-3-531-18493-7 , pp. 54-57.
  • F.-B. Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 68-69 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Exhibition on the director's 70th birthday ( Memento from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ a b movie database of DEFA Foundation
  3. ↑ Filmography in the IMDB
  4. ↑ Tom Pauls on Youtube channel gedaechtnisdernation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7HthbP7-Zc
  5. ↑ Biography of Rainer Simon on the DEFA Foundation website
  6. ↑ Review on the film pages of prisma.de
  7. ↑ The ascent of Chimborazo. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed July 20, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  8. ↑ Winner of the International Festival of Environmental Films of the Canary Islands (under Ediciones anteriores ) on the festival website, in Spanish.