The Journey to Kafiristan

The Journey to Kafiristan

101 mins | Drama | Sept. 27, 2001

In 1939, the author Annemarie Schwarzenbach and the ethnologist Ella Maillart travel together by car to Kabul, but each is in pursuit of her own project. Annemarie Schwarzenbach, who was among Erika and Klaus Mann's circle of friends in the 30s, is searching for a place of refuge in the Near East to discover her own self. Ella Maillart justifies her restlessness, her need for movement and travel, with a scientific pretext: she would like to explore the mysterious Kafiristan Valley and make a name for herself with publications on the archaic life of the nomads living there. Both women are on the run, but political developments and their own biographies catch up with them again and again. Their mutual journey through the outside world, which runs from Geneva via the Balkans and Turkey to Persia, is compounded by the inner world of emotions with a tender love story.

The Journey to Kafiristan

101 mins | Drama | Sept. 27, 2001

The Journey to Kafiristan
In 1939, the author Annemarie Schwarzenbach and the ethnologist Ella Maillart travel together by car to Kabul, but each is in pursuit of her own project. Annemarie Schwarzenbach, who was among Erika and Klaus Mann's circle of friends in the 30s, is searching for a place of refuge in the Near East to discover her own self. Ella Maillart justifies her restlessness, her need for movement and travel, with a scientific pretext: she would like to explore the mysterious Kafiristan Valley and make a name for herself with publications on the archaic life of the nomads living there. Both women are on the run, but political developments and their own biographies catch up with them again and again. Their mutual journey through the outside world, which runs from Geneva via the Balkans and Turkey to Persia, is compounded by the inner world of emotions with a tender love story.
IMDb rating 6.0
Producers ARTE, ZDF, VPRO, Tre Valli Filmproduktion, Dubini Filmproduktion, Artcam The Netherlands
Original title Die Reise nach Kafiristan
Directors Donatello Dubini, Fosco Dubini
Writers Barbara Marx, Fosco Dubini

Cast

Jeanette Hain

as Annemarie Schwarzenbach

Nina Petri

as Ella Maillart

Thomas Morris

as Deutscher 2

Wolfgang Rau

as Bibliothekar

Christof Wackernagel

as Engländer