Landretter

A film by Gesa Hollerbach. Starts July 1st at the fsk.

Life in the country has many facets and faces. Nature, peace, tradition. But reality today is often different, because structural change is destroying Europe’s villages. Schools are forced to close, communities are underfinanced, land speculation makes the farmers’ work harder and glaringly illuminated cities make the stars harder to see than a few years ago even in the hinterland. Locked-up cinemas, dilapidated houses, deserted train stations. Gesa Hollerbach’s unagitated documentary portrays four people and their lives. They come from very different backgrounds: a mayoress, an astronomer, a restaurateur, and a female farmer active in the European Parliament. In Saxony, in the Allgäu, in Austria. Ultimately, though, they are united in a joint, relentless struggle for their respective homes. The film wants to show that change can be imagined and implemented, that resistance bears its first fruits and that the tireless efforts of those courageous guardians of the countryside are not in vain. Today we see young families in the streets again and couples who deliberately choose to move to the country. The change has already begun.

Julia Weigl