ALLGÄU - Soul of the South

documentary | 2020 | HD | 90 & 45 minutes German version only

A film by Christian Stiefenhofer

It has no officially set limits. It's Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. Alemannic and Swabian. Plains and alpine regions. The fairytale castle Neuschwanstein and the baroque monastery Ottobeuren are enthroned here, but the region was poor for a long time, and nature was always its real treasure.
 
The Allgäu is the soul of the south - and one of the most picturesque stretches of land in Germany: gently undulating, with flowering meadows, lush green, brown cows and deep blue lakes, with the mountains in the background.
 
Life in the Allgäu was characterized by simplicity and hardship, with which some still try to explain the idiosyncratic character of the Allgäu people today. They are regarded as headstrong and closed, but also as smart-eared and enterprising. The Allgäu is the land of the “Mächeler” who pull off their “thing” with a great talent for improvisation. Is there an Allgäu "attitude to life"? How does the landscape shape people's mentality? The film explores these questions, far from common homeland clichés.
 
With the stubbornness of their ancestors, young people from Allgäu are now pushing through environmental protection projects or setting up startups. Like Martin Säckl, Raphael Vogler and Simon Abele. On the Allgäu-wide clean-up days they organize, hundreds of fellow campaigners collect tons of plastic waste from the Alps. Or Angelika Jürgens, who created a company with twenty employees from scratch, and only because one day a swarm of bees flew over to her.
 
The film explores an Allgäu that is populated by artists and alpine herders, butterfly researchers and cheese lovers, an Allgäu between a slurry tank and a "think tank" in which people are very committed to shaping the future. According to the old Allgäu motto: lond it luck! (does not give up)