THE FIFTH POINT OF THE COMPASS

a documentary feature film

On 1 June 2009 a passenger plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. My cousin Georg, returning from Brazil, was among the 228 dead. He grew up as an adopted child in South Tyrol and had travelled to Salvador da Bahia in order to find his biological mother. Six years later, in 2015, his adoptive brother Markus also left South Tyrol.
The adoptive brothers have in common not only the city of their birth and the black colour of their skin, but also lives that have seen more than a few ups and downs. The inhabitants of their South Tyrolean village eyed them with suspicion. Their highly religious adoptive parents pressured them to show their gratitude for growing up surrounded by prosperity. They became boys without a homeland.
My film explores the effects of adoption on the lives of the two brothers, who were sent to a children's home soon after the attempt at integration failed. We sensitively investigate their stories, speak with their adoptive mother and follow Markus as he looks for his family of origin. Cultural spaces are portrayed, their stories explored and issue taken with the opposites they contain. We will visit the South American metropolis of Salvador, travel to a Ladin village in the Alps and voyage to the bottom of the sea.
What does identity in fact mean in our modern, globalized world? Is it inextricably linked to topography, skin colour, language or customs? For the brothers, questioning this is a matter of life and death that, because of their adoption, has remained an unanswered question. Woven into this journey are essayistic passages that address the fate of Georg, whose body was never recovered: a seeker who disappeared between two continents without ever having experienced a feeling of belonging.