Trdnjava Evropa (Fortress Europe)

A harrowing docudrama filmed in detention centres, police stations and on the streets of Europe's borders regulated by the Schengen Agreement: stories and testimonies of refugees in search of work and residence permits and the fateful story of a Russian family trying to reunite in Italy. Želimir Žilnik's work is dedicated to the marginalised and disadvantaged as well as the strategic lies and deceptions of the systems. Here he captivates with a film that shows the inhumanity at the European borders, where those affected are stripped of their papers and clothes, interrogated and treated like criminals. He draws a sharp contrast between the loudly proclaimed openness of the EU and the reality, in which the borders were massively fortified against the influx of Eastern European economic migrants after the Cold War. (V.M.)