On top of the Bürglkopf mountain in Tyrol, far off the beaten track at an altitude of 1,300 meters, a refugee centre accommodates asylum seekers. Under the auspices of providing return counselling, but above all under the pressure of indefinite isolation, the aim is to convince them to leave Austria. The idyllic Alpine landscape becomes the stage for a bizarre encounter between refugees, villagers, and tourists, as the nearest mountains in Kitzbühel are primarily used for winter sports. While state-of-the-art gondolas carry vacationers from around the world to the peaks, the residents of the Bürglkopf must endure a three-hour walk to get from the camp to the valley. The film provides an insight into European border policies, which culminate in return centres and deportation camps.

Dir. Lisa Polster | 78min | 2025 | Austria

"there’s a gentleness to how the detainees are photographed. These young men are constantly demonised by the far-right media, yet in Polster’s film they are framed as slight figures against the vastness of the landscape. To rob these men of their time, the only valuable currency they can call their own, is to deny them any kind of future at all" - Guardian

"even in the face of an inhumane bureaucratic apparatus, people can retain their dignity and hope" - Ji.hlava, *Winner*, Best Central and East European Documentary Film

"a complex picture of Austrian and European migration policy, and of everyday racism”. Director Polster and her cinematographer Jasmin Schwendinger fundamentally shift the concept of a beautiful view, turning the picturesque Tyrol into a murky prison" - Diagonale, *Winner*, Best Documentary and Best Young Talent