''Salmonberries'' is a 1991

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by

Percy Adlon Paul Rudolf Parsifal "Percy" Adlon (; born 1 June 1935) is a German director, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for his film '' Bagdad Cafe''. He is associated with the New German Cinema movement (ca. 1965–1985), and has been noted ...

and written by Adlon and his son Felix Adlon. It stars

k.d. lang Kathryn Dawn Lang (born November 2, 1961), known by her stage name k.d. lang, is a Canadian pop and country singer-songwriter and occasional actress. Lang has won Juno Awards and Grammy Awards for her musical performances. Hits include the s ...

as Kotzebue, an orphaned Eskimo and young woman of androgynous appearance who works as a (male) miner in

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

, and Rosel Zech as Roswitha, an East German exiled and widowed librarian. The film takes place in Kotzebue, Alaska and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, shortly after reunification; the dialog is mostly English but includes some German with English subtitles. Their ambiguous relationship seems to be on the edge of lesbian love. The films title takes its name from the endless jars of preserved berries that line the walls of Roswitha's bedroom. Singer k.d. lang, who performs an evocative ballad, "Barefoot," in the film, it was co-written by k.d. lang and Bob Telson.Peter Dickinson After Miss lang had asked Adlon to direct a music video for her, ("So in Love" for the AIDS-benefit

Red Hot + Blue Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

compilation album) he wrote the script of "Salmonberries" especially for her.

Cast

* Oscar Kawagley as Butch * Rosel Zech as Roswitha *

as Kotzebue * Eugene Omiak as Gvy * Wayne Waterman as Ronnie * Jane Lind as Noayak *

Chuck Connors Kevin Joseph Aloysius "Chuck" Connors (April 10, 1921 – November 10, 1992) was an American actor, writer, and professional basketball and baseball player. He is one of only 13 athletes in the history of American professional sports to have p ...

as Bingo Chuck * Alvira H. Downey as Izzy * Wolfgang Steinberg as Albert * Christel Merian as Albert's wife * George Barril as Bingo attendant * Gary Albers as Tight rope walker

Awards

''Salmonberries'' has won several awards: * Grand Prix des Amériques (Best Film),

Montreal World Film Festival The Montreal World Film Festival (WFF; french: le Festival des Films du Monde) was one of Canada's oldest international film festivals and the only competitive film festival in North America accredited by the FIAPF (although the Toronto Interna ...

* Best Actress, Rosel Zech,

Bavarian Film Awards The Bavarian Film Awards (german: Bayerischer Filmpreis) have been awarded annually since 1979 by the state government of Bavaria in Germany for “exceptional achievement in German filmmaking.” Along with the German Film Awards, these are th ...

* Best Production, Eleonore Adlon,

Critical reception

Janet Maslin Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for ''The New York Times''. She served as a ''Times'' film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin ...

, in her 1994 review of the film for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', called it a "halting, awkward effort" with "stilted direction" and "sharp camera angles, arty editing". It has "uneasy acting debut" by k.d lang, but Rosel Zech has a "warmth and naturalness". Kevin Thomas of the L.A. Times in 1994, said the film was "endearing, remarkably assured and stunning-looking" and with "the utmost sensitivity, Adlon raises crucial questions of cultural and sexual identity". It was reviewed by Timeout Magazine and NF stated that it was "slight, quirky but often moving film" and "real praise goes to the two stars for breathing so much human warmth into some chilly scenes of winter". On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, it has a score of 71% based on 7 reviews, with a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

of 6.21/10.

References

External links

* * 1991 films 1991 drama films 1990s English-language films English-language German films German independent films Lesbian-related films German LGBT-related films Films directed by Percy Adlon Films set in Alaska Films shot in Alaska 1991 LGBT-related films 1991 independent films 1990s German films {{1990s-Germany-film-stub