Johanna d’Arc of Mongolia

In Ulrike Ottinger’s ultimate ethnographic odyssey, a group of women travelling by train are taken hostage by a Mongolian princess.

The carriages of the Trans-Siberian Railway have never seen such a theatrical ensemble of strangers: the chic, high-society ethnologist Lady Windermere (Delphine Seyrig) can speak several languages; American Broadway star Fanny Ziegfeld (Gillian Scalici) is always threatening to break into song; Russian cabaret trio the Kalinka Sisters are always breaking into song; the reserved German schoolteacher Frau Müller-Vohwinkel (Irm Hermann) has a quiet but curious eye; and Giovanna (Inés Sastre) is a naive young woman with little else but a rucksack, a walkman and a yearning for adventure. After transferring to the Trans-Mongolian Railway, their fantastical train journey makes a sharp turn when a group of mounted Mongolian warriors under the command of Princess Ulun Iga (Xu Re Huar) take them as captives to their nomadic summer village. There, the women observe and attempt to adapt to the customs of their new society.

Cast with Western actors and Mongolian non-professionals, Ulrike Ottinger’s 1989 epic was the first feature film permitted to be made in Inner Mongolia by a Western director. An ever-curious artist who would soon after return to film the people, environment and cultural customs of this land for her eight-hour 1992 documentary Taiga, Ottinger has stated that Johanna d’Arc of Mongolia “is not trying to create an exotic image, but to explore the issue of cultural transfer”. Depicting a dazzling clash of traditions and a stunning assemblage of colours and costumes against a vast landscape, this masterwork was frequent collaborator Seyrig’s final performance onscreen.

“A rare and remarkable film … Ottinger has an unrestrainedly lyrical sense of composition that blends lucidly analytical observation with a sugar-spangled touch of wonder.” – The New Yorker

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Content: Melbourne International Film Festival