Europa

EUROPA begins with a business trip. Beate, a determined executive working for the company EUROPA, arrives in rural Albania to negotiate the purchase of farmland for a large-scale development project. Confident in her position and methods, she expects the remaining landowners to accept the offer without much resistance. But one farmer refuses to sell. What initially appears to be a minor obstacle gradually turns into a deeper confrontation, as Beate’s carefully structured professional world collides with unfamiliar social realities and unresolved tensions beneath the surface of the project itself. As negotiations stall, the atmosphere becomes increasingly unsettling. Meetings, conversations and seemingly ordinary encounters begin to reveal shifting power dynamics and a growing sense of alienation. The further Beate moves from the logic of corporate efficiency, the more unstable her position becomes. With precise observation and restrained tension, Sudabeh Mortezai explores questions of economic power, exploitation and European expansionism. EUROPA unfolds as a quiet but increasingly disquieting study of control, privilege and the limits of transactional thinking. Directed by Sudabeh Mortezai, EUROPA had its world premiere in competition at the Sarajevo Film Festival 2023 and was later shown at festivals including the Viennale and the Zurich Film Festival. At the Viennale, the film received a Special Jury Prize. The film continues Mortezai’s exploration of social systems and hidden mechanisms of power, following works such as Joy and Macondo.