The Visit

THE VISIT is a documentary with comedy elements, and a philosophical exploration of our fear of strangers through the ultimate threat to our self-image: The discovery of alien intelligent life. The UN City is located in Vienna, with its late 1970’s architecture and its extra-territorial status not unlike a giant spacecraft that has landed in the middle of the civilized world. Inside this impressive institution representing our belief in humanity, resides the UN Office of Outer Space Affairs – the OOSA. The Visit opens with a close-up of an animal. It instinctively reacts to something unknown. Inside the OOSA, a phone rings. Deputy Director General, astrophysicist Dr. Mazlan Othman, is informed that an alien has arrived …

Director's Biography
MICHAEL MADSEN, born in 1971, is a conceptual artist and the director of several documentaries, such as the award-winning TO DAMASCUS – A FILM ON INTERPRETATION and INTO ETERNITY. He is the founder and artistic leader of several art initiatives and part of the artist collective van Gogh. INTO ETERNITY won the Crossing Europe Award European Documentary in 2011. Michael Madsen lives in Denmark. // Films (selection): CELESTIAL NIGHT – A FILM ON VISIBILITY (2003, doc), TO DAMASCUS – A FILM ON INTERPRETATION (2005, doc), INTO ETERNITY (2010, doc; CE ’11), THE VISIT (2014, doc)
European Panorama 2015
Michael Madsen
Denmark / Austria / Ireland / Finland / Norway 2015
color
90 minutes
OV with English subtitles
Screenplay Michael Madsen
Cinematography Heikki Färm
Editing Stefan Sundlöf
Sound/Sounddesign Peter Albrechtsen
Music Øivind Weingaarde
Producer(s) Lise Lense-Møller (Magic Hour Films) KoproduzentInnen / Co-Producers Michael Kitzberger, Wolfgang Widerhofer, Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Markus Glaser, Andrew Freedman, Sami Jahnukainen, Carsten Aanonsen
Production
Magic Hour Films Baldersgade 6 2200 København N Denmark T +45 39 64 22 84 post@magichourfilms.dk www.magichourfilms.webhotel.net Koproduktion / Co-Production NGF – Nikolaus Geyrhalter Filmproduktion (AT), Venom Films (IE), Mouka Filmi (FI), Indie Film (NO)