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This screening features live musical accompaniment from David Bailey on the Gallery's 1929 Wurlitzer organ.

Drama abounds on land and the high seas in this rollicking adventure story. The White Desert follows a group of fur trappers on their trek to the icy north. The divided crew faces mutiny, sabotage, treachery and the unforgiving elements as their journey becomes a fight for survival after a shipwreck.

This screening is a presentation of the restoration of Ernst Wendt's The White Desert, pieced back together by the Filmmuseum München after a largely complete film print was discovered in Queensland. The rediscovered copy of the film is of the English-language release, which differed in small ways from the simultaneously-released German version – notably in names, certain sequences, and occasionally even in tone.

Using a decomposing and incomplete German-language copy of the film, the Filmmuseum München digitally restored the film into near-complete form. German intertitles and scenes cut by the German censor were reinserted, along with explanatory intertitles for the remaining gaps.

The result of the remarkable discovery in Queensland and the diligence of the Filmmuseum München is a wonderful seafaring adventure featuring incredible footage of arctic animals, imposing icy vistas, and tense melodrama in the sailors' hometown.

Ages 12+