Der Kongress der Pinguine

The sixth continent Antarctica is a highly inaccessible territory, dominated by snow and ice. The extremely low temperatures - minus 35 degrees Celsius on a 'warm summer's day' - defy every form of life. DER KONGRESS DER PINGUINE is a tribute to the life-forms that have taken up the battle against the cold: not only bird species like penguins and seals, but also human explorers, who are accurately gauging the quantity of ozone and the degree of air pollution. For a long period of time, Antarctica has been a wholly natural paradise, but filmmaker Hans-Ulrich Schlump demonstrates that human activities have put an end to that era. One of the places he visits at the edge of Antarctica is full of old, dilapidated and abandoned factories, where until recently thousands of whales were slaughtered. Schlump calls these buildings "an impressive image of our relationship with nature, which is apparently bearing the stamp of an insatiable greed that has no compassion".