Each day, a thousand leagues from here, dozens of men set out with the extraordinary hope of reaching Europe. During the first days of their journey between Niger and Algeria, the emigrants are faced with the rhythm of the desert, its sudden transformations, its mineral immobility.

A mosaic film combining fragments from the everyday lives of the characters who live along a non-existent Balkan road. The road passes through the countries of Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania. is a huge EU infrastructural project meant to link the Black and the Adriatic Seas, already a decade in the planning. Along the way you'll meet a cowboy train, a railway tunnel used for growing mushrooms, an international businessman building an oil pipeline, a local politician dreaming of becoming the next American president, a pimp working for KFOR soldiers and even a song dedicated to, which seems to be the only real thing in a surreal world. Following the road's thread this "non-road" film captures the moods, the prejudices and the hope of the people from the three Balkan countries, who paradoxically are "far away, so close" to each other.

FRANCE
2008, colour, 45'
Version: various African languages - Subtitles: English

Director: Olivier Dury
Screenplay: Olivier Dury
Cinematography: Olivier Dury
Editing: Christine Benoît
Music: Loïc Carron
Suono: Dana Farzaneh Pour

Prizes and selections:
FID Marseille 2008 (PRIX Premier), Lutin Short Film Awards 2009 (Nomination Films Documentaries), International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam 2009 (Official Selection ‘Docs for Sale')

Production:
Les Productions de l'Oeil Sauvage
(Gentilly, T +33 145466413; F +33 145472898; wild-eye@wanadoo.fr; www.oeilsauvage.com)

Co-Production:
Tv Rennes
(Rennes, T +33 299305858; infos35@tvrennes35.fr)

Distribution:
Andana Films
(Lussas, T +33 475943467; F +33 475942509; sriguet@andanafilms.com; www.andanafilms.com)

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Ironia e crudo realismo in un film-mosaico che descrive le vite di chi popola e affronta la, nuova (inesistente) strada che collega i Balcani, tra Bulgaria, Macedonia e Albania. Una infrastruttura enorme voluta da un progetto dell'Unione Europea per unire il Mar Nero con l'Adriatico, frontiere una volta proibite. Su questa striscia di asfalto tra Sofia e Tirana incontriamo cowboy, tunnel usati per far crescere funghi, un affarista intenzionato a costruire oleodotti, un politico locale che sogna di diventare il prossimo presidente americano, un pappone che lavora per i soldati della Kosovo Force, persino una canzone dedicata a questa strada. Forse l'unica cosa reale in questo mondo surreale. Seguendo il percorso della, la macchina da presa esplora gli umori, i sentimenti, i pregiudizi e le speranze di popoli paradossalmente "così lontani eppure così vicini".