North edge

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Movie
Original title North edge
Country of production Austria , Germany , Switzerland
original language German
Publishing year 1999
length 103 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Barbara Albert
script Barbara Albert
production Erich Lackner ( Lotus Film )
camera Christine A. Maier
cut Monika Willi
occupation

Nordrand is an Austrian film from 1999 that received a lot of attention in Austria because of its multiple awards at international film festivals, including the first nomination of an Austrian film for the Golden Lion in 51 years.

The great response in the media has had a lasting positive effect on the public image of Austrian filmmaking . Barbara Albert , whose feature film debut was Nordrand , was responsible as director and screenwriter . Nina Proll was celebrated as a "Shooting Star" after this film.

action

Vienna , end of 1995. Jasmin and Tamara, who went to primary school together, happened to meet again in a Viennese hospital during an abortion appointment. Jasmin, who comes from a family with four children and a violent father, rushes from one relationship to the other and inadvertently became pregnant by her superior in a Viennese pastry shop. Another friend she kept coming back to is Wolfgang, who beats her like her father. Jasmin decides to run away from home.

Tamara, whose Serbian parents live in former Yugoslavia again, became pregnant by her boyfriend Roman. The two seldom see each other, however, as Roman spends most of the week as a basic military servant on the Austrian border, where refugees from Bosnia often try to immigrate illegally at this time . One of them is Senad, who just a little later one morning finds Jasmin, who had been drinking all night with friends of Wolfgang, motionless on the bank of the Danube. She barely escapes amputation due to severe frostbite in her hands. Her helper, who is illegally located in Austria, does not reveal himself until a few days later: He brings her purse, which he has stolen from her, but from which he has not taken anything, to the work place in the confectionery. The two start a relationship.

Tamara and Roman fall apart over Tamara's abortion and Roman's jealousy. The death of her brother Alexander in Bosnia is an additional burden. In the hospital she met Valentin, a young Romanian who only saw Austria as a stopover on his way to America. The two celebrate New Year's Eve together with Jasmin and Senad on Stephansplatz in Vienna . While Tamara and Valentin get closer, Jasmin spends the night with someone else again. She does not return to Tamara until the following morning. A pregnancy test shows that Jasmin is pregnant again - from Senad, as she is sure.

At the end of the film, Jasmin, Tamara and Valentin go their separate ways. Valentin moves on to the United States and Tamara travels to Sarajevo to stay with her family. Jasmin and Senad stay in Vienna, where Senad has already found a job with the municipal utilities . Whether Jasmin has another abortion and how her relationship life will continue remains open.

production

The film was produced by the Viennese Lotus-Film with coproduction by the Swiss Fama Film and the German Zero Film . The film was shot in and around Vienna between December 1998 and March 1999.

The film received funding from the Austrian Film Institute , Vienna Film Fund , Eurimages , the German Media and Film Society Baden-Württemberg and the Swiss Federal Office for Culture. The TV channels ZDF and ARTE also took part in the production. The catering came from the well-known cook and restaurant owner Sarah Wiener .

The film distribution is handled by the Austrian Polyfilm , the German Ventura and the Swiss First Hand Films . The English distribution title is Northern Skirts .

background

Barbara Albert began working on the script as early as 1995, towards the end of the Bosnian War , which influenced Vienna to the extent that thousands of refugees came to the city, which sometimes led to tensions between Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks . The plot and background are based on the experiences of Barbara Albert and her circle of friends and acquaintances in Vienna.

The film is also intended to provide a different, realistic and contemporary view of Austrian society, especially on the outskirts of the city of Vienna. Dealing with and everyday life of immigrants from the former Yugoslavia is therefore discussed as well as abuse in families. All of this influences the life of the two main characters Jasmin and Tamara, which is on the border between adolescence and adulthood, who also have to deal with relationship crises and abortion with additional challenges.

reception

North Rim is important in several ways. The then 29-year-old Barbara Albert made her internationally acclaimed and award-winning feature film debut and Nina Proll was awarded Best Actress in Venice and also gained a lot of attention in Austria. After all, the film can also be seen as a turning point in Austrian film history , especially since it was the first film since 1948 to be nominated for an award in Venice. The awards for Nina Proll and Barbara Albert were enthusiastically received by the Austrian media and made so many Austrians aware that internationally acclaimed filmmaking is possible and available in Austria too. For many, the film is therefore the beginning of a new era of high-quality and sophisticated Austrian films, as they were increasingly produced in the following years.

evaluation

The world premiere of the film took place on September 2, 1999 at the Venice International Film Festival , followed by the Austrian premiere at the Viennale on October 21 . The film was presented at 37 festivals in 26 countries around the world by 2001 and was shown in competition at eight of them, with six awards being won.

However, commercially, the film didn't do very well. The film started in Austrian, German and Swiss cinemas and reached around 55,000 visitors in Austria - mediocre by Austrian standards - 28,000 in Germany and around 3,500 in Switzerland.

The cinema release in Austria was on December 3, 1999, in Germany on August 31, 2000 and in Switzerland on July 1, 2001.

Nordrand was released on DVD in 2006 as one of 100 films in the “ Edition Austrian Film ”.

Reviews

  • Lexicon of the international film : “Against the background of the Balkan War captured with documentary recordings, a family situation characterized by sexual abuse and violence, as well as various relationship problems, the film draws a touching, precise study of people who have been robbed of their homeland and love. Precisely photographed, convincing acting, the staging develops into an optimistic neorealism. "
  • Die Presse : “Barbara Albert directed her first feature film with a level of certainty that others have not yet had after 20 years. [...] The wonderful actors give Nordrand a center, a heart that touches and hurts, cheers and irritates, that is, brings about things that have always been rare in Austrian film. "
  • The standard : “It is the direct encounter of hardship and joie de vivre, of exuberance, despair and the courage to survive that make the film, carried by authentic actors, into a lively mood. As a counterpoint to the real existing tanks, Albert uses images of great symbolic power: flocks of birds in the blue sky, children playing kites on the meadow. Visual breaks in which hope for the future is announced. "
  • Filmmagazin Schnitt : “[…] There was a great risk of using the“ northern edge ”as a forum for political and moral messages. [...] The students Jasmin and Tamara meet again in the abortion clinic. Afterwards it goes on as before. Sex with the young man from Sarajevo? With the nice guy from Romania? With the Viennese who works as something that is called military service there? This invites you to make suggestions for improving the world. Or to burn up the usual suspicious relationship kitsch. Directed by Barbara Albert: none of that! A miracle: your film is neither about relationships nor about lack of relationships; but probably about a little fun at the Wen meeting and a little bit of sex and the depression that lurks in the background. [...] "

Awards

Selection:

Nordrand was Austria's submission for a nomination at the Academy Awards 2000 in the category of Best Foreign Language Film , but it was neither nominated nor awarded.

The German Film and Media Evaluation FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the title valuable.

Web links

Wiktionary: Nordrand  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b filminstitut.at - information on the film
  2. ↑ famafilm.ch - evaluation of northern edge; Retrieved November 10, 2007
  3. ↑ lumiere.obs.coe.int - North edge in the Lumiere database for film attendance figures in Europe
  4. ↑ North Rim. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  5. ↑ filmcasino.at ( Memento of the original dated June 6, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - Press review on the northern edge; Retrieved November 10, 2007 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.filmcasino.at
  6. ↑ Nicole Hess: Hope for the future . In: Der Standard , September 28, 2006
  7. ^ Dietrich Kuhlbrodt: Plucking and plucking . In: cut ; Retrieved November 10, 2007