[See the original image here.]

MANILA, Philippines – For her films, Ulrike Ottinger has travelled with Mongolian nomads across the vast valleys of the Taiga forest, visited Japan’s mythical “Snow Country” with two Kabuki performers, and crossed the fallen border between East and West Berlin.

Ottinger, a world-renowned German photographer and documentary filmmaker, brings her cross-cultural, other-worldly art to the Yuchengco Museum in Makati this summer.

Running until May 10 at the Bridgeway Gallery of the museum, the curious can visit an exhibit of her large-scale photographs mostly taken as she made her films.

For the past 20 years since her debut in the 1970s, Ottinger has directed more than 15 films including feature-length fiction and experimental documentaries.

Her surreal, highly-original visual effects and cinematography are evident in her films which include “Madame X” (1977), “Ticket of No Return” (1979), and “Johanna d’Arc of Mongolia” (1989).

One of the few female German artists to achieve international fame, Ottinger is known for completely eschewing the linear style of storytelling, preferring to linger on individual scenes with fantastic imagery. Her works mix a formalist approach with a realistic approach to filmmaking.

Cinematic universe

Museum visitors will get to experience Ottinger’s cinematic vision through a screening of her 2011 film “Under Snow.”

Here is the German trailer of “Under Snow”:

The film, with a length of one hour and 43 minutes, is set in Echigo, a town in Japan known as “Snow Country” because it is perpetually covered by several feet of snow. Ottinger recorded the daily struggles of the town’s inhabitants and the stark, eerie beauty of the locale to haunting melodies by Yumiko Tanaka. She was accompanied in her journey by two Kabuki performers who add elements of Japanese art and poetry to the film.

“Under the Snow” will be screened from Monday to Saturday until May 10 at 2pm.

Ottinger herself is the subject of another film to be screened.

Directed by Brigitte Kramer, “Ulrike Ottinger: Nomad from the Lake” is about Ottinger’s life and her cinematic universe. It starts in Lake Constance, Ottinger’s birth place and source of inspiration.

This film will be screened from Monday to Saturday until May 10 at 4pm.

Ottinger’s exhibit and films promise to be a refreshing sensate and cerebral experience for the art lover always on the lookout for something out of ordinary. – Rappler.com