Films by Julia Niethammer

Australia, Mongolia, Germany 2024, 96 min
by Gabrielle Brady

A young couple must adapt to a new way of life after a devastating storm wrought by climate change forces them from their home.It is spring in the desert of Bayanhongor province in Mongolia, where young nomadic couple Davaa and Zaya live with their four kids, caring for their birthing animals.The kids spend the nights telling each other ghost stories of disappearing gers. Davaa awakes startled to check the herd for wolves, but finds nothing there. Local herders discuss the auspicious sighting of two 'red stars'.One fateful day a violent dust storm hits the families camp and they discover half their animals killed. They make the painful decision to leave for the city and Davaa is forced to sell his beloved horse.Setting up their ger in the cities 'districts', the family begin adjusting to their new life. Davaa begins work at a gravel factory but becomes increasingly haunted by the presence of his lost animals.

Germany, Australia, USA, Great Britain 2018, 94 min
by Gabrielle Brady

Located off the coast of Indonesia, the Australian territory of Christmas Island is inhabited by migratory crabs travelling in their millions from the jungle towards the ocean, in a movement that has been provoked by the full moon for hundreds of thousands of years. Poh Lin is a trauma therapist who lives with her family in this place of hostile and wild landscapes—one of the last places on the planet to be discovered. Every day, she talks with the asylum seekers held indefinitely in a high-security detention centre, attempting, relentlessly, to support them in a situation that is as unbearable as its outcome is uncertain. Comparing the natural migration with the chaotic and tragic migration of humans, subject to the constant metamorphoses of the decision-making structures, Gabrielle Brady undoubtedly succeeds in evoking a challenge that is much greater than that of the microcosm she is reporting on. With its fictional appearance, Island of the Hungry Ghosts is a film whose eloquence is most particularly based on its skilful construction and on shots composed with great delicacy. (visions du reel, Emilie Bujès)