NOMADE AUF ZEIT

“Nomadic life is like a free dance, while life in the city is like being in prison,” says eight-year-old Ilia in Valentin Macke’s first feature-length documentary, NOMADE AUF ZEIT. For two years, the young Austrian travels east without a fixed plan, hitchhiking, sleeping on strangers’ sofas and under the open sky. At the heart of the film, however, is the time he spends with a nomadic family deep in the mountains of Iran. Valentin succeeds in immersing himself in their everyday lives and getting remarkably close to them.

Caught between fascination and disillusionment, a picture full of contradictions emerges, casting his own dream of a life of freedom in a new light. An invitation to question our own place in the world, and an unusual, surprising travel documentary.