Battlefield

a film by Jannis Lenz
Country: Austria/Germany
Year: 2020
Length: 8'

Inspired by the quote of Austrian Expressionist, Oskar Kokoschka: „ Weeds are nature's opposition to the governance of gardeners“, BATTLEFIELD shows the inner life of a military base as a microcosm that seems to have fallen out of another time. Soldiers focus meticulously on gardening instead of preparing themselves for war. The grass-green battlefield gets a military buzz cut. The film depicts a dreamlike look into an imaginary future, where barracks appear as well maintained open-air museums. The tanks remain as relics, silent but admonishing. Some of them still work.

Festivals

2020
1. Diagonale - Festival of Austrian Film
(Austria, March 2020)*
2. Go Short International Short Film Festival Nijmegen (Netherlands, April 2020)
3. Vienna Shorts (Austria, 2020)
4. Sarajevo Film Festival
(Bosnia-Herzegovina, August 2020)
5. dotdotdot Open Air Short Film Festival
(Austria, August 2020)
6. São Paolo International Short Film Festival (Brasil, August 2020)
7. Helsinki International Film Festival Love & Anarchy (Finland, September 2020)
8. Encounters Film Festival (UK, September-October 2020)
9. Orvieto Cinema Fest (Italy, October 2020)
10. FestiFreak (Argentina, October 2020)
11. Festival du Nouveau Cinéma (Canada, October 2020)
12. Braunschweig Film Festival (Germany, November 2020)
13. International Usak Winged Seahorse Short Film Festival (Turkey, December 2020)

2021
14. FIPADOC International Documentary Festival (France, January 2021)
15. Akbank Short Film Festival (Turkey, March 2021)
16. Ethnocineca (Austria, May 2021)
17. Kurzfilmwoche Regensburg (Germany, May 2021)
18. Filmarchiv Open Air im Augarten (Austria, May 2021)
19. Lago Film Fest (Italy, June 2021)

Crew
Direction: Jannis Lenz
Screenplay: Jannis Lenz
Production: David Bohun
Co-production: Sonja Lenz
Cinematography: Jakob Fuhr
Sound recording: Benedikkt Palier, Joseph Nikolussi
Sound design: Rudolf Pototschnig
Editing: Jannis Lenz
Music: Piotr Iljitsch Tchaikowscki
Color correction: Klaus Prammer
Title design: Matthias Van Baaren

* Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the festival was postponed or cancelled