Nordrand (1999)

Vienna, late 1995. Jasmin and Tamara, who attended elementary school together, run into each other by chance at a Vienna hospital while there for abortion appointments. Jasmin, who comes from a family with five children and an abusive father, jumps from one relationship to another and has become pregnant unintentionally by her supervisor at a Viennese pastry shop. Another boyfriend she kept going back to was Wolfgang, who, like her father, hits her. Jasmin decides to run away from home. Tamara, whose Serbian parents live back in the former Yugoslavia, has become pregnant by her boyfriend Roman. However, they see each other only rarely, since Roman, doing his compulsory military service, spends most of the week at the Austrian border, where refugees from Bosnia are often trying to enter the country illegally at this time. One of them is Senad, who a little later, one morning, finds Jasmin motionless by the Danube after she has spent the night drinking heavily with Wolfgang’s friends. She narrowly escapes having her hands amputated because of severe frostbite. Her helper, who is in Austria illegally, only identifies himself a few days later: he brings her wallet—which he had taken from her but had not removed anything from—to her workplace at the pastry shop. The two begin a relationship. Tamara and Roman part on bad terms because of Tamara’s abortion and Roman’s jealousy. The death of her brother Alexander in Bosnia weighs on her as well. At the hospital, she meets Valentin, a young Romanian who sees Austria only as a stopover on his way to America. The two celebrate New Year’s Eve together with Jasmin and Senad at Vienna’s Stephansplatz. While Tamara and Valentin grow closer afterward, Jasmin spends the night with someone else again. Only the following morning does she return to Tamara. A pregnancy test shows that Jasmin is pregnant again—by Senad, she is sure. At the end of the film, Jasmin, Tamara, and Valentin go their separate ways. Valentin moves on, and Tamara travels to Sarajevo to be with her family. Jasmin and Senad stay in Vienna, where Senad has already found a job with the municipal utilities. Whether Jasmin has another abortion and how her love life develops remain open.