A woman joins a couple on a trip to a hunting lodge in the mountains. When evening comes, her friends go to the pub in the valley and the woman stays behind with the dog. When the couple does not return the next morning the woman sets out for the village and makes an alarming discovery: an invisible wall, behind which there appears to be no sign of life, now separates her from the rest of the world. Left behind with a dog, a cat and a cow, she must try to survive alone in the forest.
Published in 1963, Austrian writer Marlen Haushofer’s bestselling novel has enthralled generations of readers and has been translated into seventeen languages. Pölsler’s film stays close to the novel’s original texts – a mixture of fictional narrative, emancipatory chronicle and social criticism.
Q&A with the director: 16th April, 18.45, Uránia, after the screening.
