Abendland

Running time: 91 mins

The dispassionate eye peers out of the dark and into the dark because "sometimes things can be seen more clearly in the night."

In a series of stunning visual and sonic compositions, Nikolaus Geyrhalter (Our Daily Bread, 2005) trains his eye on Europe by night. It is a night land of refugees, care-givers, workers, worshippers, lovers, protesters, and partiers; a latticework of brightly lit borders, surveillance control centers, conference rooms, and transport. And everywhere there are cameras watching.

From its enigmatic opening image of a whirring surveillance camera in a black field peering into the night, Geyrhalter's instantly recognizable style, with its measured pace, almost glacial camera's eye, and use of natural sound, creates a provocative work of cinematic poetry that is simultaneously a sharply critical look at our modern world.

- Charlie Cockey