The Rendez-vous in the Zoo

A cinematographic essay about the relationship between humans and animals; a journey from the Basel zoo oft he present to the colonially determined past oft he zoos of Hambrug and Berlin, where – as in Basel – not only animals but also groups of people from exotic countries were displayed tot he public around the turn od the century. The journey takes us from the iron bars oft he 18th and 19th centuries in the Parisian „Jardin des Plants“ tot he 20th century with its artificially laid out rain forest and deserts of Arnheim, and tot he future od the synthetic and hyper-real jungle of the New York Bronx zoo. The zoo is experienced as a natural spectacle for town dwellers, as a place of research, and above all as a venue for fascinating encounters with wild animals, a place which we like to visit from time to time, perhaps in the hope of learning something about ourselves.