Living in a Perfect World
Encyclopedia
Living in A Perfect World is a 2006 feature-length documentary film
by National Geographic Channel
International (NGCI) about the Russian Mennonite people between Chihuahua Desert and the Bolivia
n forest.
The dialogue in the documentary is in Spanish
and Plautdietsch
with English and other subtitles.
Living in A Perfect World was awarded as Best Documentary of the BigScreen Festival
in 2007.
to Canada
and from there to Mexico—in search of a place where they can freely practice their religion and speak their ancient Plautdietsch
language within their large families. The four protagonists are longing for their perfect world in balance between tradition and modernity: The colony of El Savinal lives in isolation and rejects any modern technology, whereas the colony of El Capulin begins to accept innovations such as electricity and cars. The more orthodox members of the community will migrate to the Bolivian rainforest.
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
by National Geographic Channel
National Geographic Channel
National Geographic Channel, also commercially abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo, is a subscription television channel that airs non-fiction television programs produced by the National Geographic Society. Like History and the Discovery Channel, the channel features documentaries with factual...
International (NGCI) about the Russian Mennonite people between Chihuahua Desert and the Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
n forest.
The dialogue in the documentary is in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
and Plautdietsch
Plautdietsch
Plautdietsch, or Mennonite Low German, was originally a Low Prussian variety of East Low German, with Dutch influence, that developed in the 16th and 17th centuries in the Vistula delta area of Royal Prussia, today Polish territory. The word is another pronunciation of Plattdeutsch, or Low German...
with English and other subtitles.
Living in A Perfect World was awarded as Best Documentary of the BigScreen Festival
BigScreen Festival
The BigScreen festival or "BigScreen Italia" is a film festival that focuses on Chinese and Italian cinema. It was first held in 2004 in Padua, Italy, but has recently been moved to Kunming, Yunnan, China.-BigScreen Asia '01:...
in 2007.
Synopsis
The documentary tells the stories of four Mennonites (Aganetha, Cornelio, Pedro and Jacobo) living in two different communities. The colonies of El Savinal (El Sabinal) and El Capulin are settled in the Mexican state of Chihuahua and look like typical German farming communities of the 19th Century. They were founded by Russian Mennonite Europeans, whose long history of migration took them from RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and from there to Mexico—in search of a place where they can freely practice their religion and speak their ancient Plautdietsch
Plautdietsch
Plautdietsch, or Mennonite Low German, was originally a Low Prussian variety of East Low German, with Dutch influence, that developed in the 16th and 17th centuries in the Vistula delta area of Royal Prussia, today Polish territory. The word is another pronunciation of Plattdeutsch, or Low German...
language within their large families. The four protagonists are longing for their perfect world in balance between tradition and modernity: The colony of El Savinal lives in isolation and rejects any modern technology, whereas the colony of El Capulin begins to accept innovations such as electricity and cars. The more orthodox members of the community will migrate to the Bolivian rainforest.
See also
- National Geographic ChannelNational Geographic ChannelNational Geographic Channel, also commercially abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo, is a subscription television channel that airs non-fiction television programs produced by the National Geographic Society. Like History and the Discovery Channel, the channel features documentaries with factual...
- MennoniteMennoniteThe Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist denominations named after the Frisian Menno Simons , who, through his writings, articulated and thereby formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders...
- Russian Mennonite
- PlautdietschPlautdietschPlautdietsch, or Mennonite Low German, was originally a Low Prussian variety of East Low German, with Dutch influence, that developed in the 16th and 17th centuries in the Vistula delta area of Royal Prussia, today Polish territory. The word is another pronunciation of Plattdeutsch, or Low German...
- BigScreen FestivalBigScreen FestivalThe BigScreen festival or "BigScreen Italia" is a film festival that focuses on Chinese and Italian cinema. It was first held in 2004 in Padua, Italy, but has recently been moved to Kunming, Yunnan, China.-BigScreen Asia '01:...
(best documentary film 2007)
External links
- No Borders, NGCI
- terra.tv.it
- fipa.tm.fr
- Plautdietsch-Freunde (about the documentary in Plautdietsch language)
- Casas Grandes Colonies, Mexico (Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online)