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Romuald KARMAKAR
International Premiere
Following the seasons, a film about life, work, animals and visitors at Zoo Zurich, an institution that is one of the leading zoological gardens in Europe.
The Invisible Zoo is a documentary exploring the unseen side of Zurich Zoo, one of the world's premier zoological gardens. Romuald Karmakar, one of contemporary German cinema's most daring and politically controversial filmmakers, turns his lens to this subject after tackling diverse topics from Balkan mercenaries to serial killers, Heinrich Himmler's speeches, 9/11 hijackers, and Berlin's club scene. The film opens with a striking 10-minute long take of what appears to be a rainforest. As rain intensifies and thunder mingles with birdsong, we realize we're observing a man-made zoo environment, not a jungle. Karmakar's style, characteristically dry and devoid of rhetorical flourish, challenges viewers with its sustained gaze. He details zoo management activities but primarily focuses on the practical tasks maintaining this vast, complex space. Throughout the day, we observe animals in artificial habitats, their feeding routines, expressionless faces, daily lives, and deaths. Some scenes are particularly difficult to watch, such as a zebra's shooting and beheading or a lion's feeding. Through these extended sequences, Karmakar probes the human-animal relationship and its institutional manifestations, revealing the underlying violence necessary to maintain the zoo's apparent tranquility.
Romuald KARMAKAR
Born in Germany, 1965. Romuald Karmakar is a Wiesbaden filmmaker known for both feature films and documentaries. His film The Himmler Project (2000) was selected by MoMA, and he represented Germany at the 2013 Venice Biennale.