Archive of films Donau, Dunaj, Duna, Dunav, Dunarea / Donau, Dunaj, Duna, Dunav, Dunarea

Austria
2003, 89 min

Section: Another View
Year: 2004

An Odyssean story of a ship which lent its name to this unusual film. It relates a tale of four crew members and three passengers during a voyage from Vienna to the mouth of the Danube at the Black Sea. Just as the war marked the Serb and Croatian cities on its banks, so the past marks the lives of the characters…

Synopsis

“The difference between water and a river is that a river has a memory, a past and a history… A ship sailing on it can become a time machine.” In this unusual “river movie” the ship in question is an old excursion boat, called after variants of the name of the longest river in Europe. On a voyage of almost 2,000 kilometres from Vienna to the mouth of the Danube at the Black Sea, a tale unfolds of four crew members, and the three passengers who find themselves on board for different reasons. The old German captain, Franz, is honouring the last wishes of his long-time love, Mara, who once competed in the Olympics for Romania, and who wanted to be buried at the Iron Gate. Another woman, Mathilda, fleeing from dependence on drugs, is on the boat transporting the coffin. In Bratislava, a Romanian Mircea is fished out of the water by the crew while trying to swim to Austria. The first to disembark is the Hungarian cook Tanja, and then the Serbian engineer Nicola. Giorgi remains, Franz’s Ukrainian friend. Just as the water flows alongside the boat, so the relationships between the characters flow and change… Director Goran Rebić has made an original film responding not only to the myth of the great river, but especially to the lives of simple people marked by events large and small.

About the director

Goran Rebić (b. 1968, Vršac, Yugoslavia) studied at the Film Academy in Vienna (1987-91), and he still lives and works in the city. He began as a documentarist with the films I Came (Gekommen bin ich, 1987), Sissi, Black Ship (Sissi, schwarzes Schiff, 1989), Homeland (Domovina, 1990) and At the Edge of the World (Am Rande der Welt, 1992). He made his debut in features with the family drama Jugofilm (1996; Special Prize from the Ecumenical Jury at the 1997 Karlovy Vary IFF), in which he dealt with resonances of the Balkan War. After that he made the full-length documentary The Punishment (Kazna, 2000) using the testimony of people from bombed Belgrade. His next feature, Donau Dunaj Duna Dunav Dunarea, won the Audience Awards at Mannheim-Heidelberg in 2003.  

Contacts

MDC Int. GmbH
Schillerstr. 7a, D - 10625, Berlin
Germany
Tel: +49 30 264 979 00
Fax: +49 30 264 979 10
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.mdc-int.de

Austrian Films
Stiftgasse 6, 1070, Vienna
Austria
Tel: +43 1 526 33 23
E-mail: [email protected]
www: austrianfilm.com

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About the film

Color, 35 mm

Section:	Another View

Director:	Goran Rebić
Screenplay:	Goran Rebić, Heinz Ambrosch
Dir. of Photography:	Jerzy Palacz
Music:	Achim Tang, Boris Kovać, Vlada Divljan
Editor:	Karina Ressler, Martin Matusiak
Producer:	Erich Lackner, Veit Heiduschka
Production:	Lotus Film GmbH,koprodukce/co-production: Wega Film Produktionsgesellschaft
Cast:	Otto Sander, Robert Stadlober, Annabelle Mandeng, Svetozar Cvetković, Florin Piersić Jr
Contact:	MDC Int. GmbH, Austrian Films

www:	www.donau.cc

Guests

Anne Laurent - Delage

Film Institution Rep.

Eva Geissler

Wigbert Moschall

Distributor

Martin Schweighofer

Film Institution Rep.