Cinematic adaptation of the eponymous bestselling novel by Austrian writer Marlen Haushofer, delving into a human being’s relationship with nature, animals and oneself.
A woman joins a couple on a trip to a hunting lodge in the mountains. When evening comes, her friends go to a 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. She keeps a record of her thoughts, her fears and the hardship she suffers although nobody might ever read her outpourings.
»I grew up on a mountain farm above the Paltental Valley in the Austrian Styria, completely isolated from the rest of the world, nurtured by a wonderful family and surrounded by magnificent nature. Perhaps this is why nature is so important for me. I’m not an urban neurotic. I’m a nature neurotic. Humility in the face of creation is unfortunately something that we’ve lost today. I find that nature could almost have played a greater lead role in this film. Along with the off-screen commentary and the Bach partitas, a third form of language in the film deserves more space: the silence of nature.«
- Julian Pölsler
Julian Pölsler
Born in 1954 in Sankt Lorenzen im Paltental, Austria, Pölsler graduated in direction and production from the Vienna Film Academy, and, subsequently, in direction and dramaturgy from the Max Reinhardt Seminar drama school. Since 1990 he has made TV movies, winning a number of awards for his work. He has also lectured at the Vienna’s University of Technology and at the Vienna Conservatory since 2003. He also began directing opera in 2006. The Wall is his first theatrically released film.