

A mayor who paints cranes while the real birds steal the show.
Hans Goetze is not just the mayor of the picturesque coast village Ahrenshoop, he is also a famous painter. His portraits of people and landscapes sell to tourists all over the world. But the most common object of his paintings are cranes, who have a protected living place on the island of Darss. Every fall, tens of thousands of these large and majestic birds gather in the shallow waters of the baltic sea to prepare for their migration to the south. The film covers a full year of living on the island of Darss with the cranes coming and going.
Cinematography
Thousands of cranes massing at dawn—nature cinematography porn.
Direction
Patient observation without the Nat Geo drama.
Director
Christoph Hauschild
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The Darß Peninsula became a protected UNESCO reserve partly due to crane tourism sparked by films like this.
Goetze's 'famous' status is gently undercut—tourists buy his work, but the cranes are the real celebrities.
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