In 2015, the crossing between the Turkish coast and the Greek island of Kos became one of the principal routes into Europe for people fleeing war, persecution and instability. While the international media documented the escalating humanitarian emergency, Travelogue: Festung Europa approached the same geography from the opposite direction.
Beginning in Berlin and travelling south towards Izmir, Bodrum and Kos, the film unfolds through a succession of fragmented encounters and observations. Landscapes, everyday gestures and moments of apparent tranquillity coexist with the visible presence of a humanitarian crisis.
A man's voice recounts his search for a mythical tree, introducing a narrative of longing and imagined refuge. His story moves through the film alongside images of unfamiliar places and people, creating an ambiguous relationship between documentary observation and personal mythology.
Rather than constructing a conventional account of migration, Travelogue reflects on the unequal experience of movement across borders. The journey becomes an exploration of the distance between travelling by choice and travelling out of necessity, where the promise of arrival remains deeply uncertain. Filmed during a two-week journey from Berlin to the Eastern Mediterranean, the work combines observational footage, personal encounters, narration and a layered musical soundtrack.
Through non-linear editing, the film brings together intimate moments and wider geographical contexts, allowing ordinary life and political emergency to occupy the same visual space.