Strange Neighbors, an art-house nature documentary shot on an isolated German island, will open this year's Oldenburg International Film Festival. Directed

The 2-mile-long island, created in the late 1960s from sand dredged during the deepening of the Elbe shipping channel, lies directly on the fairway line and is home to a diverse range of wildlife, including white-tailed eagles, geese, and roe deer. For related coverage, explore our detailed analysis on Technology and Digital Systems.

Island Ecosystem Under Spotlight

Steinbach shot the documentary herself over three years and multiple visits to the island, often staying for several weeks in a wooden hut built on stilts to protect it from the tides. The directorial debut is a reflection of Steinbach's desire to make a film that doesn't just tell you something about animal behavior but also tells you something about this place and above all about human beings.

Strange Neighbors was produced without a sales agent or theatrical distributor, and Steinbach is hoping the world premiere will spark interest from buyers in Germany and abroad. The director says the film 'was made for cinemas,' and she hopes it will lead to distribution deals.

Steinbach will attend the Oldenburg festival, which runs Sept. 16-20, and is looking forward to sharing her vision with audiences and industry professionals.

Director's Vision

“This film was made for cinemas,” she says.

Steinbach will attend the Oldenburg festival, which runs Sept.

Read More: J.Crew Introduces Tiny Rollneck Sweater with Emma Chamberlain's Fresh Perspective

Strange Neighbors , an art-house nature documentary with no narration, no interviews and no human protagonists will open this year’s Oldenburg Internationales Film Festival , the first time a doc has launched the German indie fest.

The directorial debut of cinematographer Mi Steinbach, Strange Neighbors was shot over three years on Schwarztonnensand, an island and nature preserve on the German Elbe river, smack in the middle of one of Europe’s busiest waterways.

The island, just over 2 miles long, was created in the late 1960s from sand dredged during the deepening of the Elbe shipping channel that serves the port of Hamburg, then left to itself and gradually planted over. It lies directly on the fairway line, closer to the shipping lane than any other land on the river, so container vessels pass within meters of it.

Related Stories Movies Oscars: Ireland Picks 'Aontas' as Best International Feature Submission Movies In 'Moolah,' an Organized Crime Reporter Looks to Reboot His Career (Exclusive Venice Clips) “It was never my idea to make a natural history film,” Steinbach tells THR . “I wanted to make a film that doesn’t just tell you something about animal behavior or about the animals, but that tells you something about this place and above all about us, about human beings.” Among the habitats Steinbach filmed are tidal floodplain forests, a landscape type that has largely disappeared in Europe.

White-tailed eagles, geese and roe deer live wild on the island, along with ground-nesting bird species and predators, including foxes and raccoon dogs. Across the narrow water, the surrounding region, which includes factories from chemical giant Dow and aerospace conglomerate Airbus, is one of the most industrialized regions of Europe.

The area is also home to large-scale industrial agriculture, with the resulting effluents triggering oxygen depletion and massive fish death annually.