A LAND WITHIN

ABOUT THE FILM: In Italian, German and South Tyrolean dialect with English subtitles. Alto Adige/Südtirol/South Tyrol, 1961. A series of separatist bomb attacks shakes the northern Italian region with a German-speaking minority. Paul (Prenn), a farmer’s son and free spirit, dreams of escaping his little village to study painting in Munich. When his hardliner older brother, Anton (Rupp), is exposed as one of the bombers and is forced to flee, he leaves the farm, his wife Anna (Schwarz) and young son Thomas (Carli) behind. Reluctantly, Paul stays to support the family, but as ethnic tensions and police repression in the village grow, he is drawn into a downward spiral of violence and toxic masculinity. As events spin out of control, Paul must choose between his dream and standing up against his brother. In his feature debut, director Michael Kofler delivers a powerful portrayal of the events surrounding the so-called “Night of Fire” in South Tyrol, highlighting the thin line between conviction and radicalization. FORMAT: DCP COUNTRY: Germany/Italy/Austria