Spanien

In the middle of the night, following a minibus accident on a remote country road in Austria, Sava finds himself stranded—having paid a large sum of money to be smuggled from Moldova to Spain. He takes shelter in a nearby church, where he encounters Magdalena, who works there by day as a restorer and spends her nights painting icons. Her ex-husband—an immigration officer specializing in sham marriages—has yet to come to terms with their separation. Hovering over this fragile trio is Gabriel, a crane operator with a gambling addiction who, in order to pay off his debts, begins to play the role of fate. Atmospheric, gold-hued imagery tells a story of inner and outer journeys, of arrivals and departures, and of an enduring longing for a just place in the world. (Florian Widegger)