Abendland

Abendland
Austria, 2011, HDCAM/35 mm, 90’

directed by Nikolaus Geyrhalter
screenplay Wolfgang Widerhofer, Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Maria Arlamovsky
cinematography Nikolaus Geyrhalter
sound Lea Saby, Hjalti Bager-Jonathansson, Andreas Hamza, Lenka Mikulova, Nicolas Joly, Ekkehard Baumung
editing Wolfgang Widerhofer
producers Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Markus Glaser, Michael Kitzberger, Wolfgang Widerhofer
production Nikolaus Geyrhalter Filmproduktion GmbH, T +43 1 40 30 162, E info@geyrhalterfilm.com
world sales Autlook Filmsales, T +43 720 34 69 34, E welcome@autlookfilms.com

In the docu-essay collage Abendland, Geyrhalter – in terms of both form as well as subject – continues with what he presented in Elsewhere and Our Daily Bread. As indicated in the title (Adendland literally means “evening land” and is also used as a synonym for Occidental/Western Europe, the Western world), the film presents a nocturnal image of the European continent; through 20 typically Geyrhalterian sequences (with long, mainly static shots without commentary and interviews) he gives a portrait of Europe from the Slovakian-Ukrainian to Spanish-Moroccan borders. A Roma camp in Rome, the neonatology department at the Graz University of Medicine, the European Parliament in Brussels, the Munich Oktoberfest, a London-based video surveillance company, St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican, the TV studio of Sky News in Isleworth, an erotic club in Prague, a retirement home in Berlin and a refugee centre in Basel are some of the stops on this journey through the 21st century Western world. The night reveals even more the dehumanised and mechanised operation and security of the European fortress, whose (particularly as regards technology) high-tech and privileged lifestyle can only be preserved as long as those people who are exploited – who serve as the foundation for European wealth – stay away from the carefully controlled borders. The evening land ever more becomes the land of decline…

»Abendland is a film about our lifestyle in a wealth that we are unaware of. Our way of life only works because other people aren’t doing so well. /…/ The film can be interpreted in two ways. First, there’s the old question of How do we live? – a question deriving from the historical notion of the West being the superior form of culture. We have to investigate what has come out of that, where we are today and if this still holds true. On the other hand, this is immediately associated with the notion: ‘ok, this is how we live; but why do we think we can’t let anybody else be part of it? What are we protecting? And how do we do this?’ The question why remains unanswered, although we can see the mechanisms behind it – both as regards internal security as well as protection from what is ‘outside’. /…/ The West is falling apart and it won’t exist in such a form fifty years from now. If observed closely enough, this can be perceived and seen everywhere.« (Nikolaus Geyrhalter)

Nikolaus Geyrhalter

Born in 1972 in Vienna, Nikolaus Geyrhalter, a filmmaker, screenwriter, cameraman and producer, is one of the most prominent contemporary documentarists of the younger generation. Since 1994, he has directed eight (extremely socially engaged) feature-length documentaries, including The Year After Dayton (Das Jahr nach Dayton, 1997), Pripyat (1999), Elsewhere (2001) and Our Daily Bread (Unser täglich Brot, 2005). In addition, he has produced over 30 films.