Die 727 Tage ohne Karamo
The 727 Days without Karamo
Anja Salomonowitz
»Up until now, I’ve always allocated each of my films a specific colour. So for The 727 Days Without Karamo, I looked for a colour that was brash, bold and defiant. Sunny, powerful and vibrant. Plus, I didn’t want to make a whiny film but a strong film that offers resistance – just like the people I experienced in the interviews.«
– Anja Salomonowitz
The 727 Days Without Karamo narrates the stories of bi-national couples based in Austria. If someone of Austrian nationality marries a person from, say, Afghanistan or China or Nigeria and then of course wants to live with them, then it is not unusual for the Austrian state to deploy an arsenal of bureaucratic and police resources to put pressure on the marriage – or even declare it invalid. Thus it comes about that the immigration police and other authorities intervene in the private sphere of the couples and families to destroy the very fundament of their relationship – e.g. an Austrian woman living in Vienna has not seen her husband Karamo for more than 700 days.
The 727 Days without Karamo also shows the struggle against a bureaucracy that often comes across as Kafkaesque, of the overcoming of linguistic, territorial and social barriers and, not least, of the love that can conquer all – immigration law included!
Film programme An Excess of Order
Anja Salomonowitz
Anja Salomonowitz studied film direction and editing at the Academy for Film in Vienna and the Film and Television University (HFF) »Konrad Wolf« in Potsdam-Babelsberg. Her first works Das wirst Du nie verstehen (You Will Never Understand This) and Kurz davor ist es passiert (It Happened Just Before) – both documentary films bordering on fiction – were internationally acclaimed, received numerous film awards and have entered the literature as to documentary film. Spanien (Spain) was Ms Salomonowitz’s first full-length feature film. She lives with her family in Vienna.
Films by Anja Salomonowitz
Spanien 2012 | Kurz davor ist es passiert 2006 | Das wirst Du nie verstehen 2003 | Carmen 2000