The 12th Flying Broom International Women’s Film Festival is hosting the inspirer director of German cinematography, Ulrike Ottinger. In this festival where we can see Ottinger’s six films that all of them are welcomed enthusiastically and caused polemics, will take place, there will be also a photography exhibition consists of her works.

The12th Flying Broom International Women’s Film Festival which is held between 7th and 14th May 2009 is hosting not only Germany’s but one of the most famous directors in the world, Ulrike Ottinger. Coming to Ankara with the contributions of Goethe-Institute-Ankara Ottinger, beside her films, her photography exhibition will be an unforgettable experience for cinemagoers.

A Film About Feminist Pirates

Ottinger who was born in 1942 has started her career as an artist in Paris. She made her first film: Wolf Vostell in 1973. When she directed ‘a film about feminist pirates’ “Madame X” in 1978, she attracted all attentions. “Madame X” was both made a sign to Ottinger’s unusual cinematography and made the fetish actress Tabea Blumenschein into an underground icon after her film character as a dominant, iron fisted captain in leather clothes.

Declared as the most important female director of not only Germany but World cinematography, Ottinger; continued making inspiring films and never gave up the feminism idea in her following films. In the film “The Image of Dorian Gray in the Yellow Press” she directed in 1983; giving the role of Dorian Grey to an actress (Veruschka von Lehndorff), she reversed the sexual identifications. Among her masterpieces, “Johanna D'Arc of Mongolia” while she introduced Mongolian culture, with “Exile Shanghai” (1997) she made her viewer have a satisfactory film experience.

"Johanna D'Arc of Mongolia"                           "Freak Orlando" 

“Ottinger Whispers to Inner Desires”

According to Leslie Cami who is one of the writers of The Village Voice ,the most inventive newspaper in New York, her works are “posed against the increasing homogenization of modern living: playfulness, irony, and wonder are her tools. She speaks to our hidden desires for fabulous visions of worlds that are eccentric and strange. Ottinger achieves her enthralling visual effects through innovative and expressionistic use of costuming, composition, and unusual settings.”

In her films, she worked with fetish actors as Delphine Seyrig, Irm Hermann, Nina Hagen, Tabea Blumenschein, she shows sexuality in her distinctive way. Having greeted enthusiastically by viewer all around the world, she is one of a handful of women directors in Europe to have achieved international stature.

Thanks to her versatile talent, she didn’t only cope with cinema but also theatre, literature, photography and video. Ulrike Ottinger not only directs her films but also acts as cinematographer and producer. Her works as a photographer which can be seen through the festival were exhibited in many counties.

"The Korean Wedding Chest"

In the Festival with Six Films

The Flying Broom, will bring together Ottinger’s films: ‘Berlin Fever’, ‘The Image of Dorian Gray in the Yellow Press’, ‘Freak Orlando’, ‘Johanna D’Arc of Mongolia’, ‘Exile Shanghai’, and her last film was shown for the first time in the 59th International Filmfestival Berlin 2009; ‘The Korean Wedding Chest’ and cinemagoers between 7th and 14th May 2009.