Krista Liebe
Special to the Tribune/Advisor
Finally the gold is really coming to Williams Lake in the form of a film many of you have been waiting for. The Williams Lake Film Club is bringing Gold to the Gibraltar Room this coming Tuesday, Oct, 1 at 7 p.m.
Last year, toward the end of summer, a group of German actors, together with a large crew, came through our area to make this film. The director and script writer Thomas Arslan, is a well known film maker of Turkish descent, in Germany. This might have helped him to understand the plight of an immigrant, a seeker, even better.
Gold tells the story of seven very different people with one goal — to find gold. It is the summer of 1898. Emily Meyer (played by Nina Hoss who many of you have seen in The White Massai and A Woman in Berlin) left Germany and found work in New York.
But this is not really the work she was looking for and when she finds a small group who want to change their lives as well, and start on a voyage to Canada, she joins that group.
The train takes them to Ashcroft, the last rail stop on the Gold Rush Trail, where they meet the businessman Wilhelm Laser, the self-proclaimed leader of the group.
Seven people, 11 horses and one wagon, begin an adventure of over more than 2,500 kilometres into and through the unknown wilderness. It soon shows how little they really do know about such a venture and their daily grinds start working on them. Injuries on the trail, betrayals and the use of weapons take their toll.
There are no wild and noisy attacks by Indians, no interference by wily cowboys, just this little group trying to find their way. And their way is becoming more and more difficult, their goal seems further and further away. Their maps are unreliable, their wagon with all of their provisions is becoming a hindrance, their pack horses are getting skittish, the physical exhaustion is wearing everyone down, man and animal alike. Will their hope survive? Will they reach their goal?
This is not your typical film of immigrant adventurers facing the romantic wilderness to finally find a much better way of life. This is a gritty film of diverse people, although all of them of German background, who have to live with each other to survive, who fight each other who will be the leader, who stab each other in the back, who will find love and lose hope. Only one thing is certain: Emily does not want to return to her old way of life.
Gold was filmed on location right here in the Cariboo, between Ashcroft and Barkerville. You might even recognize a few friends of yours in some scenes and the scenery itself. And another great thing is that this is the first and only screening in BC this year. That tells you right there — you better not miss it.
Back doors open at 6:30 p.m. Admission is $9 regular, $8 for film club members, and $6 for seniors (65+) and students, HS and TRU. Memberships available at the door.