Austria's Borders

It is a country defined by its borders, and it is these borders that are at the centre of a new, feature-film-length Universum documentary.

Gernot Lechner's film "Austria's Borders" explores the most spectacular areas located along Austria's boundaries, areas which are simultaneously among the most beautiful landscapes in Central Europe.

Austria's border is exactly 2,709 kilometres long, tying together the nine provinces and also connecting the country with its neighbours and with the rest of Europe. The documentary is an expedition with several fascinating encounters, and it is not always entirely clear where Austria begins or ends.

Wars and peace treaties have defined the course Austria's borders are to take. When the Iron Curtain came down, the border sections that had often been fatal for those trying to cross them were transformed into conservation areas, an important part of the so-called "Green Belt" that connects northern Europe with the Mediterranean and also provides wild animals with an important north-south connection.

During his journey, Gernot Lercher visits eight of the nine provinces - Vienna has no international border. The Universum documentary does not simply follow the course of the border, preferring to take a look across to the neighbouring countries and thereby uncover both similarities and differences. A strange borderland of unknown places is revealed, where exciting and moving encounters with animals and humans occur.

A film by Gernot Lercher, produced by ORF and Interspot Film with the support of RTR and BMBF.