Suzie Washington

Nice, fairy-tale like (kind of Alice in Wonderland inspired) film about an illegal refugee in Austria. Birgit Doll is fine in her part and meets some strange people along the way before she can leave for Germany. The strangest of them all may be the tourist guide in his painfully yellow suit; when Birgit Doll locks him in in the luggage compartment of the bus, he stays very polite and obliging in saying: "Hallo?".

Yes, nice and hospitable people these Austrians, but the moment they find out that she is illegal in their country, they are maybe not hostile towards her, but anxious and rejecting. Everybody wants to help, if not always for free, but: no passport, no help; no passport, not a complete human being. And when ever having dinner with an Austrian man, do not tell that you are illegal: he will make a mess of his pancake desert.

The film is a great relief from films with more or less the same subject: this film is light comedy and the director has no misplaced masochist feelings towards his own country. If a romantic you probably will be disappointed by the ending, as I was.