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When the film started, our assignment seemed to be fairly simple--to tell the story of the oldest mummy ever found. But once we started working with forensic pathologist, Eduard Egarter, something incredible happened.On the 28th June 2001, as we were getting ready to film a very delicate defrosting procedure of the mummy, Egarter was doing some X-rays he needed for the defrosting. While looking through these X-rays, he saw a strange object in Otzi’s upper left shoulder. For ten years scientists had been trying to figure out exactly how the Iceman had died. Now Egarter had a bizarre clue. He rushed the body in for more X-rays, and a CAT scan. And the picture that emerged was stunning.... An arrowhead, lodged in the back of the Iceman. Otzi wasn't just a mummy... He was one of the world's first murder victims. And so our film changed dramatically.... |
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I would never have expected that filming in the airlocked room with the mummy would have been so emotional. You set up all your cameras, your lights. Everything needs to be perfectly sterilized to avoid any danger of contaminating the mummy with micro-organisms or bacteria. And then this strange corpse is slowly brought into the chamber, meanwhile you’re thinking here is one of the most important discoveries of the past century… the oldest human ever found, with flesh and organs, fingers and toes all intact. He only weighs 14 kilos and he is so light that the scientists can turn him around with their fingertips. Every time Otzi was brought out of his cell, I was struck by the impression that he was so fragile. Yet at the same time he is the most amazing time traveller of our planet, still here after 5,300 years. |
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The responsibility to be so close to one of the world’s most important mummies, someone who came out of the prehistoric age, is immense. Of course Doctor Egarter, who is in charge of the preservation of the mummy, was always present and Doctor Alex Susanna, the Director of the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology was also on hand to help and advise. Once you are comfortable in the room, then comes the challenge to try to create a mood--to get some sort of atmosphere out of an airlocked steel room, a high tech laboratory, which has no atmosphere at all. |
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www.brandoquilici.com - Copyright © 2002 Brando Quilici - All rights reserved | |
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