The film is set in a mysterious Expressionist building in Bremen called Haus Atlantis. Built in 1931 by the businessman Ludwig Roselius it was supposed to “restore the self esteem of the German people” and was inspired by the idea that the Germans were descendants of the people of the mythological continent of Atlantis and were the founders of all other great civilizations.
Haus Atlantis was conceived as an exhibition space for Roselius’ collection of prehistoric artifacts. Designed by Hoetger, it functioned as a cultural foundation whose combination of Nordic and Pagan mythology, pseudo- science and futuristic architecture sought to embody racial superiority. The building was heavily damaged during WWII and was partially restored. It has since remained in a ghostly state of incompletion and now forms part of a Radisson Hotel where it is being used as conference venue.
Shot in Haus Atlantis and the near-by Worpswede, my film weaves together the marshy landscape of the German countryside and the Nordic, mystical, utopian architecture of Hoetger. This is juxtaposed with footage of Roselius’ prehistoric collection and staged scenes with actors shot around Hoetger’s WWI monument the Niedersachsenstein.
The narration sets the film in the future after a disaster has befallen the planet and the seas have retreated. A strange ‘seasickness” starts effecting large portions of the population who become convinced that they had once lived in Atlantis. The end of ‘Deep Sea Age’ is marked by awareness that man had committed an evolutionary crime - that by travelling to the bottom of the sea, he tampered with the elements of his own consciousness.
By blending elements of documentary, historical essay and science fiction, the film combines the resonance of a mythic fable with the hallucinatory haziness of a waking dream. It invites us to reflect on the power of the cultural archetype in our contemporary context and examines the state of a social consciousness in transit between a collapsed past and utopian future.
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