A docudrama about people of different nationalities, crossing borders and breaking European laws, as they make their way across Central Europe to the West. Based on real-life events, the film is a reconstruction of stories featuring their original protagonists. It centres on a Russian family: Svetlana lives in Trieste with her friends, awaiting the arrival of her daughter Katja. Katja is escorted by her father and Svetlana’s ex-husband, Artjom. The two run into some trouble, finding themselves in a foreign country without papers they need to cross borders legally. Fortress Europe is the first in a series of Želimir Žilnik’s explorations of the topic of refugees, continued in The Most Beautiful Country in the World (2018).

Subtitles: EN