OUT OF SIGHT
Lisa Polster | Austria 2025 | 78 min. | Somali, Arabic, Dari, German, English with engl. subtitles
SATURDAY, 10.05. | 7 pm
Votiv Kino, Gr. Saal | TICKETS
Vienna premiere
In presence of Lisa Polster
MONDAY, 12.05. | 8 pm
Brunnenpassage
On top of the Bürglkopf mountain in Tyrol, far off the beaten track at an altitude of 1,300 meters, a return counseling center accommodates asylum seekers, guarded by a private security company. A three-hour walk separates the residents from the nearest village of Fieberbrunn. The view onto the idyllic Alpine landscape cannot hide the lack of prospects for the people at Bürglkopf. Under the pressure of isolation, they are to be persuaded to leave Austria.
Lisa Polster is not allowed to film on the grounds of the center. She meets the protagonists on alpine meadows or in the forest. Bürglkopf vividly depicts how the treatment of asylum seekers is hidden from public sight and provides an insight into the lack of integration policy, which culminates in ‘deportation camps’.
Director: Lisa Polster
Camera: Jasmin Schwendinger
Editing: Maria Vazquez Leven
Sound: Alexander Worsch, Tim Andersen Jonas Albani
Production: Lisa Polster, Konrad Schlaich
AWARDS & SCREENINGS
Graz – Diagonale, Festival des österreichischen Films (Grand Diagonale Award for Best Documentary Film & Diagonale Youth Jury Award for best young film talent)
Saarbrücken – Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis
BIOGRAPHY
Lisa Polster (*1996) is a writer and director from Vienna. After completing the Multimedia program at “Die Graphische,” she worked for several years in social work. Since 2020, she has been studying Screenwriting/Dramaturgy at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf. She has written screenplays for short films that have been showcased at numerous international film festivals (including Clermont-Ferrand, Max Ophüls Prize, and Diagonale). In 2023, she was awarded the “If she can see it, she can be it” treatment grant by the Drehbuchforum Wien. She lives in Berlin.
