Zurich Zoo unveiled: animal life as you've never seen it

A three-hour documentary on the inner life of one of the top zoos in the world has premiered in Berlin. Its creator, Romuald Karmakar, explains what made him shift his gaze from wars and techno music to animals in a cage.  Far from the chaotic political protests and the red carpet buzz of the Berlin International Film Festival last February, another kind of special, if more subdued, premiere was taking place on the sidelines. The 600 seats inside the opulent Delphi Film Palast, a major arthouse cinema reconstructed in 1949 during the city’s postwar revival, were quickly filling up.  No stars appeared at the screening or in the film itself, yet the atmosphere in the room suggested great collective anticipation. Romuald Karmakar’s The Invisible Zoo, a three-hour, mostly wordless portrait of Zurich Zoo, was about to have its world premiere. “From the beginning of the project we said, four seasons, no commentary, no extra music, no seated interviews,” says Karmakar after the screening.