Salmonberries **½ (1991, k d Lang, Rosel Zech, Oscar Kawagley, Chuck Connors) – Classic Movie Review 11,852

Writer-director Percy Adlon’s 1991 German drama film Salmonberries stars k d lang, Rosel Zech, Oscar Kawagley, Chuck Connors and Jane Lind, with dialogue mostly in English.

Canadian singer k d lang plays androgynous orphaned Eskimo drifter Kotzebue, working as a male miner in Alaska, who pesters exiled widowed East German librarian Roswitha (Rosel Zech) in her quest for her roots, in Percy Adlon’s off-centre drama.

The two women eventually become friends and find what they are looking for.

Salmonberries is slow, but intriguing, and the oddness is fairly fresh and appealing, even if the film lacks quite the charm or accomplishment of Bagdad Café.

First k d lang asked Adlon to direct her music video (‘So in Love’ for the AIDS-benefit Red Hot + Blue compilation album) and then he wrote Salmonberries for her.

Salmonberries are the jars of preserved berries on the walls of Roswitha’s bedroom.

k d lang performs the ballad ‘Barefoot’, written by lang and Bob Telson.

The cast are k d lang as Kotzebue, Rosel Zech as Roswitha, Oscar Kawagley as Butch, Eugene Omiak as Gvy, Wayne Waterman as Ronnie, Jane Lind as Noayak, Chuck Connors as Bingo Chuck, Alvira H Downey as Izzy, Wolfgang Steinberg as Albert, Christel Merian as Albert’s wife, George Barril as Bingo attendant and Gary Albers as Tight rope walker

Films directed by Percy Adlon: Céleste (1980), Sugarbaby [Zuckerbaby] (1985), Bagdad Café (1987), Rosalie Goes Shopping (1989), Salmonberries (1991), Younger and Younger (1993), Hawaiian Gardens (2001), Koenig’s Sphere (2001), and Mahler on the Couch (2010).

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,852

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