The Oldenburg International Film Festival will open with *Strange Neighbors*, a wordless nature documentary by first-time director and cinematographer Mi Steinbach. It is the first documentary chosen to launch the German independent festival, highlighting the film’s unusual focus on a protected Elbe island where wildlife exists alongside intense shipping and industry.

Filmed over three years on Schwarztonnensand, a two-mile-long island created from dredged sand in the late 1960s, the film contains no narration, interviews or human figures. The island supports species including white-tailed eagles, geese, roe deer, foxes and raccoon dogs, while container ships pass metres away and nearby industry and agriculture contribute to pollution and annual fish deaths. Steinbach hopes its world premiere at the festival, running 16–20 September, will attract a distributor.