Director Romuald Karmakar, known for his documentaries and feature films, spent eight years working on The Invisible Zoo – 6,500 shots over 50 days of filming, shot during different seasons at Zurich Zoo, which ranks among Europe’s leading zoological gardens.

With Romuald Karmakar, Cord Riechelmann and Peter Körte

Western lowland female gorilla, lying on her back at Zurich Zoo
2024 © Pantera Film GmbH

The Invisible Zoo is a film about those creatures that have become alien to us, that we now only know from cartoons or as soft toys – yet we no longer encounter them in the wild. Whilst their habitats are shrinking, zoos are competing to design impressive ‘wilderness settings’ for them, partly so that visitors can find some comfort in them. At the same time, today's zoos are something of a modern ark, housing, among other things, animal species that may now only exist here.

In his film, Karmakar observes everyday life behind the scenes and the relationship between humans and animals. His perspective on the animals is a special one, a cinematic one. He seems to ask: who is looking at whom? Do the animals gaze back with pity? Do we not also live in a staged world? And how much could we learn from them about camouflage, survival, play, sex, tenderness and community?

Our guests are director Romuald Karmakar and Cord Riechelmann, a philosopher and biologist who has published numerous books on animals in urban spaces and portraits of individual species. Peter Körte, author and film critic, will moderate the talk.

Romuald KarmakarThe Invisible Zoo6/10/2026, 7 PM

Romuald Karmakar
The Invisible Zoo
6/10/2026, 7 PM