{ "id": "epj70gh325", "slug": "die-wand", "title": "Die Wand", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", 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"https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2010-to-2014", "label": "Drama films 2010 to 2014", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2010-to-2014" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Die Wand (The Wall) is a 2012 Austrian-German drama directed by Julian Roman Pölsler, adapted from Marlen Haushofer's 1963 novel, starring Martina Gedeck as a woman trapped behind an invisible wall in the Alps, screened at Berlinale Panorama 2012.", "snippet": "Die Wand (The Wall) is a 2012 Austrian-German drama directed by Julian Roman Pölsler, adapted from Marlen Haushofer's 1963 novel, starring Martina Gedeck as a woman trapped behind an invisible wall in the Alps, screened at Berlinale Panorama 2012.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2010-to-2014.psychological-and-social-drama-films", "markdown": "# Die Wand\n\n**Die Wand** (English title: [The Wall](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-wall)) is a 2012 Austrian-German drama film directed and written by Julian Roman Pölsler, adapted from Marlen Haushofer's 1963 novel of the same name[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/die-wand_7ba698570bfd400da515146ce5be8f69). It stars Martina Gedeck as an unnamed woman who, while staying at a hunting lodge in the Austrian Alps, wakes to find herself cut off from the world by an invisible, impenetrable wall, and must build a new life alone with a dog, a cow, and a cat[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/die-wand_7ba698570bfd400da515146ce5be8f69). The film premiered in the Panorama section of the 62nd [Berlin International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/berlin-international-film-festival) on 12 February 2012, won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, and opened in German cinemas on 11 October 2012[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/die-wand_7ba698570bfd400da515146ce5be8f69). Austrian cinemas had opened the film earlier, on 5 October 2012 through distributor ThimFilm[2](https://filminstitut.at/filme/die-wand).\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director and screenplay | Julian Roman Pölsler, based on Marlen Haushofer's 1963 novel[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/die-wand_7ba698570bfd400da515146ce5be8f69) |\n| Lead cast | Martina Gedeck (the unnamed woman); Karlheinz Hackl (Hugo), Ulrike Beimpold (Luise), Wolfgang Maria Bauer (the man), Hans-Michael Rehberg and Julia Gschnitzer (a petrified couple)[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/die-wand_7ba698570bfd400da515146ce5be8f69) |\n| Production | coop99 Filmproduktion (Vienna) with Starhaus Filmproduktion (Munich), co-produced with Bayerischer Rundfunk, Arte, and ORF; running time 107 minutes (24 fps) in a 2.35:1 35 mm format, rated FSK 12[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/die-wand_7ba698570bfd400da515146ce5be8f69) |\n| Filming | 7 June 2010 to 1 February 2011 at Dachstein/Salzkammergut, Upper Austria, on Austrian Federal Forest land near Gosau[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/die-wand_7ba698570bfd400da515146ce5be8f69) • [3](https://www.marlenhaushofer.ch/die-wand-film/) |\n| Awards | Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, Berlinale Panorama 2012; Lola for Best Sound Design, German Film Awards 2013; nominations for Best Feature Film and Best Actress[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/die-wand_7ba698570bfd400da515146ce5be8f69) |\n| Oscar entry | Austria's official candidate for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 86th Academy Awards (2 March 2014)[2](https://filminstitut.at/filme/die-wand) |\n| Reception | 76% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (37 reviews); US theatrical gross $38,700 on a limited release from 7 June 2013[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/die_wand) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nA woman travels to a remote hunting lodge in the Austrian mountains with a married couple, Hugo and Luise, and their dog[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/die-wand_7ba698570bfd400da515146ce5be8f69). When the couple goes down to the village for the evening and does not return, the woman sets out to look for them and runs into an invisible barrier that blocks her way[5](https://www.fbw-filmbewertung.com/film/die_wand). Beyond the wall, life appears to have stopped: she finds an older farming couple standing motionless in front of their hut, frozen as if petrified in a single moment[5](https://www.fbw-filmbewertung.com/film/die_wand). The cause of the wall remains unexplained, and the woman speculates that a secret weapon caused the sudden catastrophe[6](https://www.filmstarts.de/kritiken/190949.html).\n\nLeft with the couple's dog, a cat, and later a pregnant cow, she survives by hunting, haying, and milking, while recording her experience in a journal that may never be read[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/die-wand_7ba698570bfd400da515146ce5be8f69) • [6](https://www.filmstarts.de/kritiken/190949.html). The Austrian Filminstitut describes the film as the story of an individual transformation, in which a woman is forced by an inexplicable phenomenon to break with her accustomed life and begin a completely new one in a strange world[2](https://filminstitut.at/filme/die-wand).\n\n## Adaptation and the voice-over\n\nPölsler first read the novel in 1986, called it his \"life book\", acquired the film rights in 2003 after they had long been held by other producers, and then spent seven years working on the screenplay[7](https://www.austrianfilms.com/news/en/julian_r_poelsler_talks_about_his_film_adatpation_of_the_wall). The novel had long been regarded as unfilmable, because its story is told entirely from the first-person interior perspective of a woman in isolation[8](https://www.programmkino.de/filmkritiken/die-wand/). To preserve the text, Pölsler had Gedeck's character recite Haushofer's own words, shortened but otherwise unchanged, as an off-screen voice; apart from a few short dialogues at the beginning, the film is spoken entirely from the off[9](https://www.dieterwunderlich.de/Poelsler-wand-Gedeck.htm).\n\nThat choice divided critics. The scholar Beate Petra Kory notes that the strict fidelity brought the film heavy criticism from film theorists, who attacked it as \"a well-illustrated audiobook\" devoid of originality[10](https://www.czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/conv/article/view/6245). The German board FBW instead awarded the film its Prädikat wertvoll rating, citing an \"extraordinarily dense work\"[5](https://www.fbw-filmbewertung.com/film/die_wand). Other critics praised the film as an austere, contemplative piece that functions as a showcase for Gedeck's performance[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/die_wand), with Screen's Jonathan Romney calling it a spectacularly shot, highly intelligent adaptation in which Gedeck's physically demanding solo performance is phenomenal[11](https://www.screendaily.com/the-wall/5037936.article).\n\n## Production and locations\n\nThe shoot ran from 7 June 2010 to 1 February 2011, 75 shooting days spread across four seasons, in the Dachstein/Salzkammergut region near Gosau in [Upper Austria](https://www.edgepedia.org/upper-austria)[3](https://www.marlenhaushofer.ch/die-wand-film/) • [1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/die-wand_7ba698570bfd400da515146ce5be8f69). The Austrian Federal Forests (Österreichische Bundesforste) had searched for nearly two years for a single location that would offer ideal conditions across all four seasons, covering candidates from Tyrol to Salzburg and Styria before settling on Gosau[12](https://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20100623_OTS0070/groesster-film-dreh-auf-bundesforste-flaechen-gestartet). Specific locations included the Gosausee and a hunting lodge, with summer high-alpine footage shot around the Stuhlalm on the Salzburg side of the Gosaukamm, and further filming at [Hallstatt](https://www.edgepedia.org/hallstatt) and the Krippenstein[13](https://www.gosaunet.at/service/archiv/2012/die-wand-drehorte-6-nov-2012.html).\n\nOne of Pölsler's own dogs, a Bavarian mountain hound named Luchs, appears as the woman's companion[9](https://www.dieterwunderlich.de/Poelsler-wand-Gedeck.htm) • [13](https://www.gosaunet.at/service/archiv/2012/die-wand-drehorte-6-nov-2012.html). The cow Bella, a Murboden cattle animal whose registered name was Lütizia, became what local coverage called the film's secret star[13](https://www.gosaunet.at/service/archiv/2012/die-wand-drehorte-6-nov-2012.html).\n\n## Sound and music\n\nThe film's music consists of short violin solos from [Johann Sebastian Bach](https://www.edgepedia.org/johann-sebastian-bach)'s partitas for solo violin, used not to underscore scenes but to set accents in otherwise silent moments[9](https://www.dieterwunderlich.de/Poelsler-wand-Gedeck.htm) • [14](https://www.deutscher-filmpreis.de/film/die-wand/). Rendering the invisible wall acoustically was the hardest production problem, in Pölsler's account: after experimenting with music and effects, the crew settled on a low humming modeled on the sound an electromagnetic field might make, audible near the barrier[9](https://www.dieterwunderlich.de/Poelsler-wand-Gedeck.htm) • [15](https://www.austrianfilms.com/news/julian_r_poelsler_ueber_die_adaptierung_von_marlen_haushofers_die_wand).\n\n## Reception and interpretation\n\nThe film holds a 76% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes from 37 critics, with a critics' consensus crediting Martina Gedeck's performance with carrying the film, and an audience score of 69%[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/die_wand). Its US limited release through Music Box Films grossed $38,700[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/die_wand).\n\nCommentators have read the story in several registers. The Filmdienst describes it as readable as a document of female emancipation, a bleak [Robinsonade](https://www.edgepedia.org/robinsonade) (castaway survival story, like [Robinson Crusoe](https://www.edgepedia.org/robinson-crusoe)), a critique of civilization, and a metaphorical depiction of depression[16](https://www.filmdienst.de/film/details/540586/die-wand). Pölsler himself reports that the writer and psychiatrist Paulus Hochgatterer called the book a precise description of clinical depression, and the director's intended resolution was to brighten the depressive mood by having his protagonist come to terms with herself[7](https://www.austrianfilms.com/news/en/julian_r_poelsler_talks_about_his_film_adatpation_of_the_wall).\n\nThe film also revived attention to its source. Haushofer received the Arthur Schnitzler Prize for the novel in 1963, it had been translated into at least 17 languages by the time of the film's release, and a 2012 English reissue carried a still from the film on its jacket[17](https://www.marlenhaushofer.ch/die-wand/) • [18](https://stefanherbrechter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/10-Not-that-Im-afraid-of-becoming-an-animal%E2%80%A6-Ecography-in-Marlen-Haushofers-The-Wall.pdf).\n\n## References\n\n1. [Die Wand, filmportal.de](https://www.filmportal.de/film/die-wand_7ba698570bfd400da515146ce5be8f69)\n2. [Die Wand, Österreichisches Filminstitut](https://filminstitut.at/filme/die-wand)\n3. [Die Wand – Der Film, marlenhaushofer.ch](https://www.marlenhaushofer.ch/die-wand-film/)\n4. [The Wall, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/die_wand)\n5. [Die Wand, Deutsche Filmbewertung und Medienbewertung FBW](https://www.fbw-filmbewertung.com/film/die_wand)\n6. [Die Wand, FILMSTARTS.de](https://www.filmstarts.de/kritiken/190949.html)\n7. [Julian R. Pölsler about his film adaptation of THE WALL, Austrian Films](https://www.austrianfilms.com/news/en/julian_r_poelsler_talks_about_his_film_adatpation_of_the_wall)\n8. [Die Wand – Programmkino](https://www.programmkino.de/filmkritiken/die-wand/)\n9. [Die Wand, Dieter Wunderlich: Buchtipps und mehr](https://www.dieterwunderlich.de/Poelsler-wand-Gedeck.htm)\n10. [Julian Pölslers Verfilmung von Marlen Haushofers Roman „Die Wand\" als unabgeschlossener Wandlungsprozess, Beate Petra Kory, Convivium 2019](https://www.czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/conv/article/view/6245)\n11. [The Wall, Jonathan Romney, Screen Daily](https://www.screendaily.com/the-wall/5037936.article)\n12. [Größter Film-Dreh auf Bundesforste-Flächen gestartet, APA-OTS, 23 June 2010](https://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20100623_OTS0070/groesster-film-dreh-auf-bundesforste-flaechen-gestartet)\n13. [Die Wand, Literaturverfilmung, Drehorte, gosaunet.at, 6 November 2012](https://www.gosaunet.at/service/archiv/2012/die-wand-drehorte-6-nov-2012.html)\n14. [Die Wand, Deutscher Filmpreis](https://www.deutscher-filmpreis.de/film/die-wand/)\n15. [Julian R. Pölsler über die Adaptierung von Marlen Haushofers DIE WAND, Austrian Films](https://www.austrianfilms.com/news/julian_r_poelsler_ueber_die_adaptierung_von_marlen_haushofers_die_wand)\n16. [Die Wand, Filmdienst](https://www.filmdienst.de/film/details/540586/die-wand)\n17. [Die Wand – Roman von Marlen Haushofer, marlenhaushofer.ch](https://www.marlenhaushofer.ch/die-wand/)\n18. [\"Not that I am afraid of becoming an animal\" – Ecography in Marlen Haushofer's The Wall](https://stefanherbrechter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/10-Not-that-Im-afraid-of-becoming-an-animal%E2%80%A6-Ecography-in-Marlen-Haushofers-The-Wall.pdf)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2010 to 2014 › Psychological and social drama films*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/die-wand", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/die-wand.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Die Wand\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/die-wand. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Die Wand](https://www.edgepedia.org/die-wand)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/die-wand](https://www.edgepedia.org/die-wand). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Die Wand\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/die-wand. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Die Wand is a 2012 Austrian-German drama directed by Julian Roman Pölsler, adapted from Marlen Haushofer's 1963 novel, starring Martina Gedeck as a woman trapped behind an invisible wall in the Alps, screened at Berlinale Panorama 2012." }