All For The Countryside

A documentary film by Gesa Hollerbach | 83 min | 2019 | D

Life in the countryside has many facets and faces. Nature, tranquility, tradition. But the reality today often looks different, because structural change is destroying Europe's villages. Schools have to close, municipalities are underfunded, land speculation makes the work of farmers more difficult, and glaringly lit small towns mean that even the stars in the hinterland are no longer as clearly visible as they were years ago. Shuttered movie theaters, dilapidated houses, desolate train stations. Gesa Hollerbach's unagitated documentary portrays four people and their fates. They all have very different backgrounds: a mayor, an astronomer, a restaurateur, a farmer who is active in the European Parliament. In Saxony, in the Allgäu, in Austria. In the end, however, they are united by their common relentless fight for their respective homelands. In doing so, the film wants to show that change can be thought and made, that resistance is beginning to bear fruit and that the tireless work of these courageous land rescuers is not in vain. Thus, today one sees young families on the streets again and couples who consciously decide to move to the countryside. The change has already begun.