About – The Fairy Trail

About The Fairy Trail

A Film by Britta and Till Gerhard

Shamanism in indigenous cultures all over the world and ancient myths of mankind have always taken them for granted: nature spirits. In Europe we know them from fairy tales and great pieces of art and literature as elves, fairies, gnomes, dwarfs, goblins, nymphs or mermaids. But what is the core reality behind these stories and why are people still fascinated by these ephemeral beings today? What is the story of Findhorn, a place in Scotland, known for the huge cabbages grown with the help of nature spirits in the 1960s? Is there an ensouling intelligence behind nature and can we get in contact with it?

Britta and Till Gerhard went on a journey to find out about these questions. The filmmakers traveled over a period of more than three years trough Slovenia, Germany, Scotland, England and Ireland. In 96 min the viewer is taken to magical places and their inhabitants. He will encounter people who are in close contact with the elemental beings and have formed rare skills: They laugh with the elves, dance with stones and receive advice from the shimmering shapes. The film gently approaches a world in which humans live in harmony with nature, right here, right now, in the middle of Europe. At the same time the film is a homage to nature itself, to the elements water, fire, earth and air without which live would not be possible. Questions occur like: Which value does nature have in our civilized society? What do we get, what do we give? How can we live with nature today and how can we re-establish a wholesome contact to it? In poetic pictures the filmmakers evoke the longing to recapture the lost paradise.

Densely the interviews are woven together into an overall thread. Instantaneous and impressively the statements lead into a constant flow combined with almost abstract, hypnotic shots of nature, animation and music.