About

This screening will feature live musical accompaniment from David Bailey on the Gallery's 1929 Wurlitzer organ.

Drama abounds on land and the high seas in this rollicking adventure story. Die weiße Wüste (The White Desert) 1922 follows a group of fur trappers on their trek into the icy north. The divided crew faces off against mutiny, sabotage, treachery, and the unforgiving elements as their journey becomes a fight for survival after a shipwreck.

This screening is a presentation of the restoration of Ernst Wendt's The White Desert, pieced back together by the Filmmuseum München after a largely complete film print was discovered in Queensland. The rediscovered copy of the film is of the English-language release, which differed in small ways from the German version originally released at the same time – notably in names, certain sequences, and in some variants of tone. Using a decomposing and incomplete German-language copy of the film, the Filmmuseum München restored the film back to its current and extraordinary digital form. German intertitles and scenes cut by the German censor were reinserted, along with some explanatory intertitles inserted for the remaining gaps.

The result of the remarkable discovery in Queensland and the diligence of the Filmmuseum München is a wonderful seafaring adventure featuring incredible footage of arctic animals, imposing icy vistas, and melodramatic tension in the sailors' hometown.

Ages 12+