The Wall

The Wall is a 2012 Austrian-German drama film written and directed by Julian Pölsler and starring Martina Gedeck. Based on the 1963 novel Die Wand by Austrian writer Marlen Haushofer and adapted for the screen by Julian Pölsler, the film is about a woman who visits with friends at their hunting lodge in the Austrian Alps. Left alone while her friends walk to a nearby village, the woman soon discovers she is cut off from all human contact by a mysterious invisible wall. With her friends' loyal dog Lynx as her companion, she lives the next three years in isolation looking after her animals. The Wall was filmed on location in the Salzkammergut region of the Austrian Alps. The film was selected as the Austrian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards, but it was not nominated. Plot A woman (Martina Gedeck) travels with her two friends, Hugo and Luise, and their loyal dog Lynx to their isolated hunting lodge in the Austrian Alps. Soon after they arrive, Luise insists that Hugo accompany her to a pub in a nearby village, leaving behind their dog and the woman. The next morning, realizing her friends never returned as planned, the woman sets off on foot toward the village, followed by the dog. As she walks along the road, her progress is stopped abruptly by a mysterious invisible wall. After several unsuccessful attempts to continue past the invisible barrier, the woman turns back to the lodge with the dog. Along the way she approaches a farmhouse, but again is prevented by the invisible wall from making contact with the two owners who appear frozen in time. Back at the lodge, the woman grows increasingly depressed over her predicament. After exploring the area again with binoculars, she concludes that the couple at the farmhouse, as well as all the people in the village, must be dead. During her walk, the woman encounters a cow that she takes with her. Knowing the animal is both a blessing and a burden, she feeds and milks her, and names her Bella. Sometime later, she gets into Hugo's car and drives down the road toward the village and tries to drive through the obstruction—but the car crashes into the invisible wall. Fighting off despair, the woman decides that she can survive the summer with the cow and her endless supply of wood. While she plants potatoes and looks for food, she keeps track of the passing time by crossing off the days on a calendar—a remnant of the civilized life she still retains. She takes in a stray cat.