ÜBER DIE GRENZE - FÜNF ANSICHTEN VON NACHBARN
Österreich 2004 – Director: Pawel Lozinski, Jan Gogola, Peter Kerekes, Robert Lakatos, Biljana Cakic-Veselic – Original language: Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene – Subtitles: German – Length: 131 min.
Meeting the neighbours has never been more entertaining. Across the Border travels through the newer European member states of Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary and The Czech Republic and reveals the changing face of nations and identities in the process of re-birth.
Through amusing encounters with a motley bunch of characters from border guards to go-go dancers and fishermen to philosophers a vision emerges of these vibrant states as they undergo radical changes. As one character remarks, "There is a border, but you can't see it. The fish can't see it either, they swim wherever it suits them" As it says in the title, this new space contrasts with what has been and with what is to come. The Iron Curtain gives way to new freedoms of movement, but have all the borders gone or do the firmly fixed boundaries between nations still exist in our minds?
Awards: Golden Dove and MDR-Award, Leipzig 2004
English/Original Title: Across the Border - Five Views from Neighbours. Camera: Jacek Blawut, Vladan Vála, Martin Kollár, Tomás Sabo, György Réder, Janez Kalisnik. Sound: Jerzy Murawski, Jiri Melcher, Peter Gajdos, Jaro Hajda, Tamás Csaba, Marjam Cimperman. Editing: Katarzyna Maciejko-Kowalkzyk, Andrea Pugner, Marek Sulík, Ferenc Szabó, Uja Irgolic. Music: Alexander Shevchenko. Production: Nikolaus Geyrhalter Filmproduktion GmbH. Producer: Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Markus Glaser, Michael Kitzberger, Wolfgang Widerhofer.
