Ulrike Ottinger Start Contact Printversion German Version
The Specimen
based on a Grotesque by
Valentin Katayev
"And in this cabinet" the head of the museum says, "you will find something very unique; in fact unique and one-of-its-kind in all the USSR: the specimen of a philistine from the year nineteen-o-five."
When, before the revolution, accidentally arrested, the philistine - a tsarist civil servant of high status - falls in deep, lethargic sleep.
20 years later he wakes up and finds himself in a post-revolutionary, still young Soviet Union. He is stunned. He is shocked. But a philistine always finds his way.
A Film by Ulrike Ottinger
Germany 2002

DVCam/DigiBeta  black/white
18:26 minutes  
German or English titles

Ulrike Ottinger Filmproduction, Berlin

Distribution:
Freunde der Deutschen Kinemathek e.V., Berlin

Sales:
DVD