Draft:Invisible Border Shortfilm

Invisible Border is a shortfilm by Mark Gerstorfer. The film tells the story of a deportation in Vienna in the middle of the night. Police officer Nancy (Temiloluwa Obiyemi) and her colleague Albert (Tommy Leonardelli) have the task of evicting a family. Together with a police unit, they ambush an Albanian family without a valid residence permit. The situation escalates. The pubescent son (Alexander Sladek) becomes rebellious, the father (Labinot Morina) suffers a nervous breakdown. When the mother (Vjosa Breiteneder-Lubeniqi) of the family throws herself from the second floor, Nancy takes care of the 8-year-old girl (Nathalie Sollak ), who did not notice the incident in her cellar hiding place. The events of the night leave everyone involved traumatized.

Production
The shortfilm was produced entirely in Vienna. The project came to be as a student film at the Filmacademy Vienna/University of Music and Perfoming Arts in Vienna. After an internship at the police department of Vienna and talking to police personelle, working at a charity helping refugees coming from Syria he wrote the script based on the experinces and lives of people going through situations of eviction and deportation from either side. The development began in 2016, principal cinematography was done in May 2021. The release of the film was handled by the distirbution company Lemonade Films. After winning several Austrian and international shortfilm awards and prices, Invisible Border was honoured with the Gold Medal at the 50th Student Acamdey Awards in Los Angeles in October 2023. On December 21st Invisible Border was put on the Shortlist of the Oscars.

Cast
Temiloluwa Obiyemi, Tommy Leonardelli, Vjosa Breiteneder-Lubeniqi, Alexander Sladek, Nathalie Sollak, Labinot Morina, Roswitha Soukup, Elfriede Schatz

Crew
Director/Screenplay: Mark Gerstorfer

Producer: Lukas Rosatti, Mark Gerstorfer, Marie-Thérèse Zumtobel

First AD: Maximilian Demets

Cinematographer: Marie-Thérèse Zumtobel

Sound Recording: Lisa Puchner, Lara Zill

Sound Design: Lisa-Maria Hollaus, Matthias Hafner

Editor: Alexander Rauscher

Make Up: Jenny Bladek

Production Design: Lukas Rosatti

Color Correction: Lee Niederkofler

Title Design: Alexander Rauscher

Costume Design: Veronika Harb