Documentary Out NowThe Container Lab on the Movie Screen

5 February 2025

A new film takes a look behind the scenes of an extraordinary scientific endeavour: ‘Our Container Lab. Mission 1: Palm Leaf Profilers’ follows the laboratory containers and our researchers on their journey to India to the historic manuscripts of Tamil Nadu.

In terms of research, it is uncharted territory; in terms of logistics, it is one of the most complex ventures ever undertaken at the CSMC: The aim of the ‘Palm-Leaf Manuscript Profiling Initiative’ (PLMPI) is to determine the provenance of historical palm-leaf manuscripts from Tamil Nadu on the basis of their material properties and thus to reconstruct how certain texts, and with them, for example, certain cultural or religious practices, spread in this region. To find this out, Indologists and food chemists have joined forces. Using different analytical techniques, the researchers try to determine the geographical origin of the palm leaves used to make the manuscripts as precisely as possible.

Because the valuable manuscripts cannot be taken out of the country, a mobile laboratory is needed to implement this research approach. For this reason, a Container Lab has been developed at the CSMC that can be used to carry out highly advanced analytical work anywhere in the world. For PLMPI, the Container Lab is in the field for the first time: Since summer 2024, it has been stationed on the premises of the Institut Français de Pondichéry (IFP) in Puducherry in southeast India, where researchers from Hamburg work together with the manuscript experts on site in the Container Lab.

What can be told so briefly was extremely complicated in practice: Not only the construction of the Container Lab itself and the fine-tuning of the analytical methods, but also the transport, assembly, and maintenance of the containers, the communication with the relevant authorities in Germany and India, and the adaptation to the local conditions in Puducherry – high temperatures, extreme humidity – have kept many people busy at the CSMC and its partner institutions for a long time, working in the engine room of research to ensure that this idea could become reality.

Early on in this process, we decided to document this extraordinary project (which is not yet complete – in fact, the genuine research work has only just begun) on film. The film makers Hoppenhaus & Grunze followed the entire process with the camera, from the construction of the containers to their commissioning in Puducherry, and talked to our researchers and their Indian and French colleagues about the idea behind the Container Lab and how it is proving itself in its first concrete application in India. The result is not only an insightful science documentary, but also a lesson about teamwork across the borders of countries and academic disciplines.

Meanwhile, work in the Container Lab continues: After the end of the monsoon season, members of PLMPI have recently returned to the site to use their innovative methods to reveal the provenance of the historical manuscripts.