Donau, Duna, Dunaj, Dunav, Dunarea

Director: Goran Rebic
Screenwriters: Heinz Ambrosch, Goran Rebic

Institute History

  • 2004 Sundance Film Festival

Description

Unforgettable images and honest filmmaking mold a microcosm of the people and countries that line the burgeoning banks of the mythic Danube River that connects Vienna to the Black Sea.

It is the final voyage of the Donau, a rusting hulk of a ship. At the helm is Franz, the lonely captain whose plans are thrown off course when a young man hauls a casket on board to fulfill the final wish of a dying woman. As Franz casts off, he begins a two-thousand-kilometer journey that involves an orphan, a deserter, a Transylvanian, a drug addict, and various other rootless individuals. Only on the water will the truth about these people become clear and link them more closely than they imagine. Some relationships are begun or consummated while others are severed; even the notion of family is questioned, but no one makes the journey without being profoundly changed.

In this floating road movie, Goran Rebic creates something stark and poetic. The river itself is a character, a passive witness to the ageless struggles plaguing this part of the world. The Danube's majestic beauty is a striking contrast to the gritty realism inside the vessel. Make no mistake: This film does not pit man against nature; it is a parable of man's struggle with himself.

— John Cooper

Screening Details

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