Abendland
Aug 31 - Sep 06, 2012
(Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Austria, 2011, 35mm, 88 min)
Seattle Premiere!
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.