Strange Neighbors

The 2026 Oldenburg Film Festival opened with Mi Steinbach’s Strange Neighbors.

The first documentary to open the festival, currently in its 33rd edition, the film is a portrait of an island in the River Elbe and the implicitly curious image of its abundant wildlife surrounded by an enormously busy corridor of commercial human activity. Steinbach’s film does not editorialise on this situation, merely the filmmaker spent several weeks capturing what life is like for the creatures who inhabit this protected idyll, even as tankers piled with shipping containers plough past in the background. Devoid of narration or any interviews or talking heads, it is a meditative experience – a mindful moment to consider our place in, and impact on, the world.

The island in question is that of Schwarztonnensand, which can be found in the Elbe to the west of Hamburg. Originally a silt bar, it was transformed into an island in the 1960s when the depth of the river was increased to allow for more significant haulage traffic. The result was the 3km by 0.5km island that can be found there now, and was designated as a nature reserve in the 1980s. As with so many space like this seen across Europe and beyond, when this space was given up to nature, the ecosystem thrived and Schwarztonnensand can now been seen as a wildlife haven, filled with insects, mammals and birds. It was this ecological variety that first caught Steinbach’s attention and it is to this that Strange Neighbors is, at its heart, a love letter.

The film begins, however, in the human domain. The hum of machinery merges with a propulsive beats of synth music as Steinbach’s camera captures fleeting glimpses inside the belly of the industrial beast – pistons spring to life, dials measure pressure, walkways wind between gargantuan pipes, winches wind up, metal rattles. Exactly what we are inside matters little, it is a metal box that jars drastically once the camera lingers on an exit sign and, as the music subsides, and an image opens onto the screen of the sun setting over swaying trees and the island is introduced in all of its splendour.

Steinbach does a fantastic job of bringing all of the elements of her film together to create a cohesive language in how the natural and manmade worlds are presented, both in isolation and together. Bernhard Reddig’s editing has much to do with this, helping to shape the footage – all captured by Steinbach herself – of the island into a quiet reflection of natural rhythms that allows the beauty of an individual shot to resonate. Here the music is also completely transformed, Robert Nacken’s handling of the score and sound design allowing the poetic melodies of orchestral instrumentation to emphasise the shift away from the repetitive beats of the factory-like interiors. Nacken also knows when to ease off any music altogether and how to let the wildtrack of the natural world do the heavy lifting.

Early on, a fox creeps through the long grass to the accompaniment of mellifluous birdsong and the rattle of a woodpeckers beak on a distant tree trunk – it is transporting in a way that defies the evident construction of cinema. You could be there, holding your breath, trying not to break the delicacy of a magical encounter. There are many such moments like this in Strange Neighbors – a huge flock of barnacle geese honking their way over the island, a deer curled up and asleep in the grass, a raptor being mobbed by corvids who want it off their patch. Steinbach’s images don’t shy away from how nature is red in tooth and claw, but the wonder of nature here is not dependent on it being warm and fuzzy, just given the space to flourish.

Of course, that space is often shown in direct contrast to the world beyond the island’s shores, where boats pass and industry waits on the fringes. The complexity of the situation is evident in the setup – the island only exists due to commercial development, but the creatures who called it home are only in such dire need of habitat due to the same reasons. Strange Neighbors drifts back and forth between these two worlds, shunted up against one another, guided by Nacken’s music also shifting registers. Steinbach draws the audience’s eye towards echos and patterns, some of which perhaps crossover between these worlds, but the film leaves us primarily with a thoughtful reminder of how, even in a smoke-laden globalised world, nature can thrive when given the opportunity.

Director, cinematography, producer: Mi Steinbach
Editing: Bernhard Reddig
Music, sound: Robert Nacken
Production company: Earth Cut Film (Germany)
Venue: Oldenburg Film Festival (International)
No dialogue
80 minutes

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