A young woman stands on the Rialto Bridge in Venice; in a cool box is her dead goldfish. Initially she had planned to let it be carried out to sea. But then an emotion that is even stronger causes her misgivings, and so she packs the fish up again. In the surreal setting of an empty city, she sets out in search of lost meaning.

A young woman stands on the Rialto Bridge in Venice; in a cool box is her dead goldfish. Initially she had planned to let it be carried out to sea. But then an emotion that is even stronger causes her misgivings, and so she packs the fish up again. In the surreal setting of an empty city, she sets out in search of lost meaning.

Although director Olga Kosanović was born and raised in Austria, she is not allowed to be Austrian. Her first attempt at naturalization failed. One contemptuous social media comment summed it up: “If a cat gives birth in the Spanish Riding School, that doesn’t make the kittens Lipizzaners.”What notion of identity underlies a legal system that divides society into “us” and “them”? A film about belonging — and about a second attempt.

Olga Kosanović reveals the unfair absurdity of Austria’s right to residence. The single father Vladimir wants to work to be able to stay in the country with his daughter. But if he doesn’t have a residency permit, he’s not allowed to work. From this paradox, the film filters a humanistic indictment of cynical domestic policies in the land of insurmountable peaks.