The Most Beautiful Country in the World

Technical data
101 min, HD
Photographs from the film

The film follows a group of young migrants in Vienna who break through the administrative labyrinths of checkings and gaining status and residence. We see their anxieties, mutual encouragement and achievements - while mastering the foreign language, they demonstrate skills in their professions, clarity and knowledge on entrance exams for schools and universities. It is also a story about new and old friendships, about the feeling of freedom in the new environment, without the pressure of war threats and the patriarchal stance of the family life.

The main hero is a twentythree-year-old Bagher, who embarked on his journey from Afghanistan as a seventeen-year-old, leaving a war-thorn family. After three years of travel (through Iran, Turkey, Greece and the Balkans) he arrived in Austria in a great migrant wave in 2015. He prooved himself to be a brave, honest and intelligent young man. He has mastered German language, has several devoted and intelligent friends. They are on the road of “Europeanisation”, but suddenly Bagher's grandfather Haydar appears, arriving in Austria illegally, through Slovenia. He came to find Bagher in order to convey the message, that he has a duty to preserve the name and honor of the family, because all the other men were killed in the war back in Afghanistan. The appearance of gradfather Haydar leads to discouragement, evocation of the past, conflicts and a series of new labyrinths, from which Bagher and his new friends must find the way out.


Written and directed by: Želimir Žilnik
Cinematography: Peter Roehsler
Production sound: Günther Tuppinger
Edited by: Vuk Vukmirović

Participants: Haidar Ali Mohammadi | Basima Saad Abed Wade | Bagher Ahmadi | Ivana Nikolić | Habib Tawhidi | Negin Rezaie | Alaedin Gamian | Jana Dolečki | Mustafa Ayni | Petra Popović | Durgham Al Mahmudi | Laila Hajouleh | Tomaž Pavkovič | Dimitar Anakiev | Azelia Opak | Jasenka Softić | Turbo Tanja | Shereen Al Mansour | Bana Haddad | Somayeh Tawhidi | Mohammadi Abdolhannan | Shakiba Gholami |Michal Bedi | Roqhia Hassana |Negin Keivanfar | Nora Al Rifai |Sarah Al Rifai | Mohammad Al Rifai | Manca Dorrer | Abdullah Norani | Ghiasi Abdul Hadi | Jihad Al-Khatib |Amin Khawary |Yasser Alnazar | Peter Bedi | Hasti Karimi | Stojan Vavti | Jantus Philaretou |Jonathan Fetka | Mohammad Ali Karimi | Farzad Ibrahimi | Sharafhuddin Hashami | Drago Pintarič | Choir 29 November

Production: nanookfilm, Vienna
Co-producers: Tramal Films, Ljubljana, Slovenia; RTV Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia; Factum, Zagreb, Croatia