NORDRAND (NORTHERN SKIRTS)
Austria, 1999, 103 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Barbara Albert.
Nordrand is a slice of life in Austria, 1998. While Austria seems secure, there are echoes of the Balkan wars and refugees coming from Bosnia and Sarajevo. There are also Austrian military who are praised for their military prowess in these circumstances.
However, the film focuses on two girls, friends/enemies at school who encounter one another in their early twenties. Jasmine leads a rather promiscuous kind of life, working in a cafe, dating men, becoming pregnant, having an abortion. She encounters Tamara, a refugee from Bosnia who is a nurse, criticised by the authorities in the hospital. She also is pregnant.
The film brings the two women together along with men who are refugees from Rumania and Bosnia. The film is rather free-wheeling in its structure rather than controlled. However, the central performances are strong and give an impression of ordinary people struggling in their lives in the '90s.
1. An Austrian film? For Austrian audiences, world-wide audiences? Human nature, troubles, hopes?
2. The atmosphere of Vienna, the cafes, hospitals, streets, demonstrations, military parades, New Year celebrations? The contrast with the war footage on the television from the Balkans? Musical score and songs and their comment on the actions and characters?
3. The title and its focus, the two women?
4. The structure of the film: introduction to the girls at school and their potential? The Rubic Cube? The antagonism between the two girls? Seeing them grown up, their own lives, the interweaving of their lives and friendship, memories? The men in their lives? The wider family?
5. Jasmine and her potential, her enjoyment of life, fat, jolly, eating? Her relationship with men? Passionate? Her relationship with her mother and the antagonism, the silent father yet his letter to urge her to stay at home? The wandering sister, the two little ones? Her care of them? Her pregnancy, lying in the snow, being rescued, hospital? Later meeting the man who rescued her, his gift, their relationship, ultimately her pregnancy? The friendship with Tamara, the apartment, not being accountable? New Year celebrations? Their friendship? Her final run and her decision to have the baby?
6. Tamara, her relations still in the Balkans, the phone calls being cut off, the later death of her brother and her grief? Antagonism at the hospital? Her relationship, pregnancy, the reaction of the man? Meeting Jasmine, friendship, her moving in? Clashes? Her anger with the supervisor? The meeting with the Rumanian? The relationship, his going to America? Her going to see her family?
7. The men: the easygoing men in Jasmine's life? Tamara's boyfriend, his self-absorption, love for her, antagonism and jealousy? Her photos and her love for him? The Rumanian, his care for his grandmother, gentle, friendly, the sexual encounter, his going to America?
8. The wider families - unsettled, clashes? The Rumanian and his grandmother and care of her?
9. The incidental life of Vienna in its detail? An authentic atmosphere? Particular stories, universal meanings?
