Galway Film Fleadh 2011 Programme

In 1914, thirteen-year-old Oda von Siering leaves Berlin to join her family on an estate in Estonia. The von Siering family home is a character in its own right, a hulking, neoclassical manor that hovers on stilts above the sea. Oda arrives there bearing her mother’s coffin and a gift requested by her surgeon father: a jarred, two-headed fetus to add to his laboratory of gruesome curiosities. Ebbo von Siering sees himself in his daughter when she expertly learns to suture the corpse of a cat. What he fails to recognise – and what Oda luckily understands – is that their interest in science is their only similarity. His dedication to experimentation is linked to an appalling obsession with power and destruction, while Oda is genuinely curious about life. Her quick, quiet intelligence complements her humanity and her lucid understanding of right and wrong.

Running Time 129 mins | Colour | 35 mm

Producer Alexander Kordes, Meike Kordes

Script Chris Kraus

Cast Paula Beer, Edgar Seige, Tambet Tuisk

Production Kordes & Kordes Film

Print Source Bavaria Film International