The West ( Abendland ) ( Evening Land (Nighttime) )

The West (DVD) (*)

~~$25.99~~ $19.97

Original Title: Abendland
Alternate Title: Evening Land (Nighttime)
Language Selections:
English ( Subtitles )
German ( Dolby Digital 5.1 )

Product Origin/Format:
Germany ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
91 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (1.78:1)

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access

Movie filmed in 2011 and produced in:
Austria ( Germany, Central Europe )

Directed By:
Nikolaus Geyrhalter

Written By:
Wolfgang Widerhofer
Nikolaus Geyrhalter

Actors:
Nikolaus Geyrhalter

Synopsis:

***WARNING***Original language audio with English subtitles***Abendland might be summarized-though hardly done justice-by looking at its English title: The West. Famous for his documentaries created without music or narration, in Abendland Nikolaus Geyrhalter collages 170 hours of nighttime footage of Europe in an attempt to 'capture' the continent on film. His scenes of hospitals, border patrol stations, sex clubs and TV studios offer beautiful glimpses of places that enable the "ideal" Western lifestyle-while inquiring wordlessly what makes that lifestyle preferable.

The word Abendland, the west in German, literally means "evening land", an implicit reference to our decadence. So what is so desirable about our lifestyle that makes so many people dream of partaking of it, and obliges us to raise walls to keep them out? Geyrhalter addresses this question in several powerful sequences, formed by a relentless stream of pictures - he recorded 170 hours of material, over a 14-month period, subsequently edited by Wolfgang Widerhofer. The staff at an undertaker's sort sealed and apparently identical metal urns after cremation; a nurse looks after bedridden women, offering a terrifying picture of what awaits us; police officers use a simulator to learn how to shoot at dangerous suspects; Bavarian Red Cross paramedics hold out a regulation bucket to catch the vomit of drinkers at the Munich Bierfest; shining bright in the night, the triple fence around Ceuta, equipped with electronic detectors and watched over by the Spanish Guardia Civil, protects us against immigrants. To end it all we are treated to a rave in a stadium, with a display of muscular bodies as impressive as the event is vacuous.

Some things can be seen more clearly at night: ABENDLAND, Nikolaus Geyrhalter's new feature film, undertakes a long, associative journey, surveying Europe by night in terms of its many different facets. Pulsating society of service providers and prosperity, bulwark of security and exclusion, urban civilization, hedonistic temple of earthly delights, inspired and weighed down at the same time by its history, traditions and highly developed culture.

This product was added to our catalog on Thursday 16 May, 2013.

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