Johanna d’Arc of Mongolia

Johanna d’Arc of Mongolia

FEATURING: Delphine Seyrig, Irm Hermann, Peter Kern, Gillian Scalici,

 

“A rare and remarkable film. . . . Sumptuously stylized yet ardently observational” (Richard Brody, New Yorker). A central work in Ulrike Ottinger’s career, Johanna d’Arc of Mongolia is an epic adventure tracing a fantastic encounter between two different worlds. Seven Western women travelers meet aboard the sumptuous, meticulously reconstructed Trans-Siberian Express, a rolling museum of European culture. On board are Lady Windermere (Delphine Seyrig in her last screen role), a prim tourist (Irm Hermann), a brash Broadway chanteuse, and an all-girl klezmer trio. Ambushed by a band of Mongol horsewomen, the company is abducted to the plains of Inner Mongolia, where they embark on a camel ride across the magnificent countryside.