washed ashore

Life on the Danube is essentially determined by two factors: the river itself, and the oft strange idiosyncrasies of the people who live along its banks. And they are multiferious: fishermen and graveyard wardens, Buddhist monks, allotment holders on Danube Island, stranded shippers, tramps and soldiers. All linked by the great current against which they swim. The film tells their stories and their longings - tranquil images by an unobtrusive camera tell of the innumerable people who have drowned and lie buried in the "Cemetery of the Nameless" in Albern and similarly of the Rumanian shipper and his wife who have been sitting on their tug in Vienna for over a year because the blockade of the river in former Yugoslavia prevents them from going home.


"With very modest means and an infallible feeling for the essential, one of the youngest and most promising documentary filmmakers in Austria, Nikolaus Geyrhalter, has made an outstanding film. washed up calmly, and without commentary, presents a portrait of people who spend their lives on the banks of the river Danube or on the river itself. The presentation by no means detracts from the entertaining quality of the film. The contemplative black and white pictures get their strength from stylistic precision, and a captivating harmony of rhythm and picture composition. The message, which is never forced on you, has to be captured, gently."

(Robert Buchschwenter)