1 + 8

The first thing to stand out about this film is its remarkable formal decency. Although even the title makes one expect mathematical approach, the fact is that Cynthia Madansky and Angelika Brudniak’s documentary feature debut follows elaborate dramatic structure. While on tour along Turkish borders, the two filmmakers not only visit border cities adjacent to all the eight country’s neighbors, they also take a look at each one’s counterpart on the other side of the border. These seemingly unimportant towns and mountain villages in the Balkans, Anatolia, or on the Black Sea coast are separated by boarderlines of demarcation with utterly important and direct influence on people’s lives. They divide people while, at the same time, making them seem to belong together.