25/03/2011

Austrian documentarian Nikolaus Geyrhalter’s Abendland had its world premiere at the opening of the Diagonale, the Festival of Austrian Film in Graz (March 22-27). The fly-on-the-wall documentary doesn’t reach the heights of Geyrhalter’s best work Our Daily Bread [+see also:
trailer
film profile], but still impresses with its sheer visual richness and access to behind-the-scenes of Western European political, social and media machinery.

The German word “abendland” can be translated either as the old term for Western Europe, Occident, or as Evening Land. And the film does take place during evening and night over the Western part of the continent.

There are no narrative titles to inform us where the proceedings are taking place. Some places are clearly recognizable, such as the European Parliament or Munich’s Oktoberfest, and by hearing the language in particular scenes one can tell in which country they’re set. But that doesn’t matter much as Geyrhalter primarily shows us the common zeitgeist – the spirit of the times – of contemporary Europe.

Opening on an Eastern border and closing at a huge rave party in a German-speaking country, Abendland crisscrosses the continent and shows us scenes from the European Parliament (revealing the stupidity of EU bureaucracy), an immigration transfer centre in France (a Nigerian man has been declined asylum), a CCTV centre in London (everything is suspicious), but also much more intimate scenes, such as a nurse taking care of a baby in an incubator, or real sex in a brothel.

Shot in crisp HD, and edited in a slow, mesmerising rhythm, Abendland still leaves one with a feeling of a missed chance for a stronger film, but does show us how Europe functions today. It will be a must-have for the festival circuit, and the release in Vienna on April 1 will attract more intellectual audiences.