In the shadow of the Karakoram

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Movie
Original title In the shadow of the Karakoram
Country of production Germany , Austria
original language German
Publishing year 1955
length 85 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Eugen Schuhmacher
script Eugen Schuhmacher
Mathias Rebitsch
production Eugen Schuhmacher
music Erich Bender
camera Eugen Schuhmacher
Martin Schliessler
occupation

Camera management

Expedition leader

Expedition participant

Other contributors

  • Her Royal Highnesses, the Mir and the Rani of Nagar and the people of the Hunza

teller

In the shadow of the Karakorum (full title: In the shadow of the Karakorum - through the wild land of the Hunza to the summit of the Batura) is an award-winning German-Austrian documentary by Eugen Schuhmacher from 1955. On the one hand, it depicts the barren life of the Hunza in the Hunzatal and on the other hand he accompanies a German-Austrian Himalaya-Karakoram expedition in the spring and summer of 1954 under the direction of Mathias Rebitsch to the Rakaposhi in the Karakoram . Two dubbed versions were made for the film. One for West German and Austrian cinemas where Ernst Fritz Fürbringer acts as the narrator and one for DEFA with Otto Mellies as the narrator. The opening credits include a dedication to the geodesist Karl Heckler, who died on July 26, 1954 during the expedition in the Hunza Gorge. The film was financed by the German Alpine Association and the German Research Foundation . It was released in theaters on August 3, 1955 in the Federal Republic of Germany and on May 10, 1956 in Austria.

content

An animated introduction shows the geographic location of the Karakoram Mountains, which are located north of the Himalayan massif. Surrounded is the mountain of different valleys, especially the ChaLt, the Hunza, the Baltit, the Gulmit, the Passu and the Batura Glacier . Then the camera pans to the Gilgit airfield , where the German-Austrian expedition arrives and is greeted by a bagpipe music corps.

Since modern transport is not possible in this region, the expedition has to make its way through the Hunza Gorge on foot or on horseback. It goes via Rafiqs, man-made trails along the mountains and suspension bridges over the Hunza River, the longest of which is 114 m long.

After a four-day walk and a distance of 150 km, the expedition team finally reached a valley basin where the Hunza people settled. They build their houses on the barren land, while the green, fertile land is reserved for agriculture and horticulture. The Hunza are a people of about 22,000 people (as of 1954) who see themselves as descendants of soldiers from the army of Alexander the Great and whose 2000 year old traditions are firmly rooted. Their villages are surrounded by nut and apricot trees. In order to ensure the fertility of their soil, the Hunza farmers have to collect the water from the mountain glaciers and channel it through kilometers of water channels to their stone-walled terraced fields. The water is usually distributed according to a fair system at precisely defined times of the day and night.

The main town and the largest of the 100 or so existing villages in the Hunza Valley at that time is Baltit . This is where the Mir and the Rani of Nagar have their seat. The Mir is not only head, but is also the supreme jurisdiction. For example, he passed a judgment against a water thief in which the accused had to pay the injured party a sheep and 50 seers of fresh grain. Traditionally, the court session ends with a party.

The sword dance, which is only performed by men, gives an insight into the festive days of the Hunza. The steps become faster and faster and the movements more and more threatening. In addition, equestrian games (with shooting from the galloping horse and piercing the lance) and polo, in which only stallions are ridden, are presented.

The harvest season begins in July, with the grain being plucked by hand by the Hunza farmers without tools and then threshed. The most important fruit tree is the apricot, which together with the whole grain flatbread forms the staple food of the Hunza. Oil is extracted from some of the kernels, another part is revealed and used for a delicacy. The wood of the cores is burned. The processing of wool from sheep and goats is a woman's job. The men twist and spin the textile raw material and process it on the looms.

The most elaborate house in Balkit next to the castle is the half-timbered building of the school, which is decorated with ornaments. Not only reading, writing and English are taught here, but also the art of silk moth breeding and the extraction of silk . As soon as the caterpillar has pupated in its cocoon, it is killed. The silk wrapping is collected and passed on to the factory as raw material, where the silk is spooled and twisted. Then a Hunza boy is shown hunting birds, who uses a simple slingshot to kill a songbird. Birds found in the Hunza Valley include the house sparrow and the hoopoe . There are few pets. Occasionally you can still see water buffalo in the foreland. The camel is gradually disappearing from the Hunza Valley. At higher altitudes, the yak imported from Tibet is considered an important pack animal and mount. However, the wealth of cattle in the Hunza consists mainly of sheep and goats, which are herded from mountain pasture to mountain pasture in the summer months.

The last part of the film is again dedicated to the expedition. Preparatory work for the carrier caravan to the rakaposhi is shown, the march on foot or by mount over steep rocky slopes, hot desert-like landscapes, scree, bare plateaus and alpine pastures. Only shepherds and hunters live in this barren mountain landscape. After several days of marching, the expedition reaches the place where the main camp will be set up on the moraine ridge of a glacier. Spring begins in the mountains and dog roses, mountain flowers , yellow buttercups, wild rhubarb, butterbur , bluebells , forget-me-nots and sea ​​buckthorn are in full bloom. The dominant tree in this area is the birch, whose thick bark is used by the Hunza as wrapping paper and as writing paper by the expedition members.

Then life in the main camp is shown. The food preparation, the work of the team doctor, the expedition leader with the communication and two snow leopard babies that were found by a local and served as mascots for the camp. The plant geographer carries out meteorological measurements and herbarizes plants. The geologist can be seen doing the geomagnetic surveying with the field balance and the geographer and surveyor are involved in mapping the expedition area and surveying the Batura Glacier. A Hunza hunter goes on an ibex hunt with a muzzle-loading rifle at a distance of 5000 meters and griffon vultures soon find themselves among another ibex carcass. Various scouting teams are formed to find the best route to the summit of Rakaposhi. At the end of the film, the expedition members Dolf Meyer, Paul Bernett and Martin Schliessler climb over a hanging glacier to a secondary peak of the Batura at an altitude of 6,700 meters.

Awards

In the shadow of the Karakoram received the Great Bronze Plaque for the best documentary film at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1955 . In the same year he received the gold film ribbon at the Federal Film Prize for the best full-length cultural film. At the IV International Festival for Mountain and Research Films in Trento, he won the Golden Alpine Rose.

Criticism and reception

The reviews for this film have been positive. For example, the magazine Film-Echo wrote in July 1955

“What sets it apart from many other expedition films in an essential and beneficial way is its clarity and objectivity, is the renunciation of all visible striving for sensation. With this film you have the sure feeling of not being presented with more than what the expedition actually encountered and not being led onto the black ice of the feature film by means of dramaturgical or directorial tricks. "

The Bavarian State Ministry for Education and Culture recommended that the upper classes of elementary and secondary schools as well as the students of the middle and upper grades of higher education institutions visit the film because of its high cultural value.

literature

  • Horst Höfler (Ed.): Hias Rebitsch - The mountain is not everything. Climbing pioneer, free spirit and altitude archaeologist . Tyrolia-Verlag, Innsbruck 2010. ISBN 978-3-7022-3083-8
  • Anderl Heckmair: My life as a mountaineer. Nymphenburger Verlagshandlung, Munich 1972, ISBN 3-485-01755-8 .
  • Wolfgang Pillewizer: Between desert and glacier ice. German researchers in the Karakoram. VEB Hermann Haack, Geographical-Cartographic Institute, Gotha, 1960.
  • Eugen Schuhmacher: The mountain is alive - mountain animals in the Alps, Andes, Rocky Mountains and in the Himalayan Karakoram , F. Bruckmann, 1958
  • Eugen Schuhmacher: I filmed 1000 animals - experiences on all continents , Ullstein Verlag Berlin - Frankfurt / M. - Vienna, ISBN 3-550-06563-9 , 1970

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Georg Herzberg, Film-Echo, No. 33, July 13, 1955, p. 963
  2. ^ Film-Echo, No. 63, October 26, 1955, p. 1620