Those Next to Us

Short Documentary Film, AT/CH/DE/MX 2023, DCP, 30 min, OmeU
Program: Kurzdokumentarfilm Programm 1

Paradise awaits on the other side. But the way there leads through a river of the dead, with rotting bodies floating towards the man from Mexico as he crosses it. Bernhard Hetzenauer examines the US Southwest’s “blood meridian.” The images from the borderland—lonely cars, a police patrol, a setting sun—are underpinned by the account of the survivor of a human-trafficking operation that claimed a lot of lives. But also by conversations about God, the world, and superstition.

Director: Bernhard Hetzenauer
Script: Germán López Rosales, Bernhard Hetzenauer
Cast: Germán López Rosales
Camera: Bernhard Hetzenauer
Editor: Gabriela Ivette Sandoval Torres, André Siegers
Location Sound: Mariángela Martínez Restrepo, Gabriela Ivette Sandoval Torres
Sounddesign: Jochen Jezussek, Jaime Guijarro-Bustamante
Additional Credits: Zweite Kamera und Kameraassistenz: Tristan Guercovich; Dramaturgie: Mariángela Martínez Restrepo, André Siegers; Farbkorrektur: Georg Kußmann; Filmscans: Pedro Maia; Künstlerische Beratung und Aufnahmeleitung: Manuel Benítez Espinoza
Producers: Bernhard Hetzenauer, Irene Hetzenauer, Marko Mijatovic, Andrew Carlberg
Production: Bernhard Hetzenauer
Co-production: Bernhard Hetzenauer, Irene Hetzenauer (AT), grundstudio Winterthur/Marko Mijatovic (CH)
Distribution in Austria: sixpackfilm
Funded by: BMKÖS Film
Land Oberösterreich Kultur
Stadt Wien MA 7
Otto Mauer Fonds
Comeback – Zuschuss für Film- und TV-Dreharbeiten
Pacmyc Nayarit Mexico
Stiftung Kunstfonds Bonn
Kodak
World Premiere: Telluride Film Festival 2023
Austrian Premiere: Diagonale '24
Production format: analog - 16mm