‘Europa’: Sarajevo Review

Dir/scr: Subadeh Mortezai. Austria/UK. 2023. 98mins

Having examined hidden substrata of Viennese society in her first two fictional features Macondo (2014) and Joy (2018), Iranian-Austrian writer-director Subadeh Mortezai now widens her geographical horizons with Albania-set drama Europa. Premiering in the main competition at Sarajevo, this is a slow-burn affair built around a compellingly ambiguous lead performance by Lilith Stangenberg.

Built around a compellingly ambiguous lead performance by Lilith Stangenberg

Taking its time to sketch characters and background before finally (and satisfyingly) revealing its narrative hand just after the hour mark, this is a solidly-crafted affair that handles topical issues of economic inequality and trans-border exploitation in an intelligent manner. Further festival play is likely, though commercial prospects beyond German-speaking markets (and Albania) may be less assured.

Stangenberg, a Berliner who enjoyed breakout, award-winning success in Nicolette Krebitz’s Wild (2016), later made a vivid impact as the languidly vampiric lead of Julian Radlmeier’s Bloodsuckers (2021). She also exudes something of a Countess Dracula vibe here as Beate Winter, a mid-level executive at the shadowy but powerful Europa corporation. Dispatched to rural Albania to buy up farms occupying land earmarked for the firm’s latest construction project, she is surprised to encounter stubborn resistance from some of the traditional locals. The most vocal hold-out is middle-aged farmer and beekeeper Jetnor (Jetnor Gorezi), whose college-age daughter Besa (Steljona Kadillari) stands to benefit from one of Europa’s munificent schemes promoting female empowerment.

It is crystal-clear from the opening seconds of the film’s action, however, that the negotiations are doomed to disaster: Mortezai kicks off in the middle of a chaotic, graphic illustration of Jetnor’s violent anger. The rest of the film then steadily details exactly what leads up to this dramatic confrontation, parcelling out information with careful restraint. And while Beate is front-and-centre for most of the running-time, Mortezai also finds space to incorporate atmospheric digressions focussing on Jetnor and his bygone, threatened way of life.

Once again showing considerable flair in the handling of non-professional newcomers such as Gorezi and Kadillari, Mortezai allies the believably organic evocations of backwater Albania with plot developments that veer intriguingly and effectively into thriller territory in the latter stages. She never quite spells out exactly what Europa is or what it’s up to, but provides sufficient hints — such as Beate’s immediate boss being American — that mean we can fill in the blanks for ourselves. A cumulative mood of murky nefariousness emerges, with the silkily persuasive, slow-talking Beate’s fundamental moral turpitude by no means diluted by the various humanising touches deployed to flesh out her characterisation.

Shot in widescreen by cinematographer Klemens Hufnagl, Europa does justice to the splendours of Albania’s still-unspoiled countryside without straying into picture-postcard prettiness. A world away from the crowded streets of Vienna where Mortezai established her filmmaking reputation, this is a place still haunted by the nation’s decades of isolation and Communist dictatorship — and now suffering the disturbingly mixed blessings of globalised, 21st-century ’progress’.