Southeast Passage / Sdostpassage (2002) dir. Ulrike Ottinger 1/3

Structured in three parts, the film records cultural encounters with the camera: a journey from Berlin through Eastern Europe, and two urban expeditions, one to Odessa and one to Istanbul. With an impressive eye for detail and respect for the individuals she meets, Ulrike Ottinger presents a portrait of the people on the edge of Europe who have failed to benefit from the end of the Cold War. “Places and worlds beyond the interest of the media are at the mercy of the law of forgetting. The spotlight fades and that which urgently needs public attention lies in the dark: poverty, hopelessness, and the population’s fear in the face of terror from the state or from gangs, of Mafia-like business practices and paramilitary is not a journey to a far-off land, outside of our cultural circle; it takes place along the old transport and trade routes through the decaying empires of southeast Europe. The images collected at the side of the road distill something essential from a number of small but significant observations: the coincidence of the lack of coincidence in living conditions.” Ulrike Ottinger