The Sixth Continent
Andreas Pichler
Cinema-Dokumentary
The odd house on the outskirts of a small town has become a haven for survivors and castaways of all coloratura. A safe place and open experiment.
The „House of Solidarity“ is going to rack and ruin, but it is the beauty of the city of Brixen in South Tyrol at the edge of the forest. On taking a closer look, you discover something completely unexpected. Site not shrouded in mystery, but a highly colourful and lively biotope of extremely different destinies. Forty, fifty people live in this house. Thieves, the homeless and the jobless, addicts and refugees from half the world. Their biographies read like a collection of diverse life stories that have only one thing in common: they are all stranded, often failed in life. Here they find a temporary safe place home and live together. This cannot work out well, said the residents wrongly over 10 years ago when the house of solidarity came alive. But the impressive social experiment was successful.
In the narrative time frame of few months, the documentary THE SIXTH CONTINENT is capturing the utopic moment in a very intimate and poetic manner, which is the peculiar thing about this place.
Soon, everything becomes very different in the house of solidarity. The missionary order that provided it, wants it back. The future is open.
Credits
Director and Author: Andreas Pichler
Director of Photography: Susanne Schüle, Martin Rattini
Sound: Stefano Bernardi, Dominik Rogan
Editor: Nela Märki
Producers: Tanja Georgieva, Valerio B. Moser
Produced by: Elemag Pictures GmbH
Festivals: 33. DOK.fest München
Kino-Verleih Deutschland: realfiction
2017 84/52 Min.