Noch lange keine Lipizzaner [literally: Still a Long Way from a Lipizzan]
Director: Olga Kosanović
Writer: Olga Kosanović
Seen on: 31.10.2025

“Plot”:
Olga Kosanović was born in Austria, but her attempts to actually get the Austrian citizenship prompted her to take a closer look at Austrian immigration and citizenship laws, as well as at the impact it has whether you have the citizenship of the country you live in or not. And what is citizenship anyway?

Noch lange keine Lipizzaner is an insightful, entertaining documentary about an important subject. Especially in times of rising fascism and right-wing pushes against immigration, it is pretty much essential viewing and still retains a sense of humor.

The movie title stems from a comment Olga Kosanović received online after she made the trouble she had with her first citizenship application public. She was born in Austria, but her parents did not have Austrian citizenship, so neither did she. When she applied for it as a young adult, every single day she ever spent abroad was counted and she had, I think, about 55 days too much outside of Austria – so her application was denied. And some random person commented on that: “Just because a cat has a litter in the stables of the Spanish Riding School, its babies are still a long way from being a Lipizzan.”

It really is the perfect quote to frame this film, transporting all the racism, the sense of superiority and entitlement that citizenship applicants face in just a few words. And then, of course, there are the bureaucratic hurdles that Kosanović also covers in detail – like her own “absenteeism”, but also the fact that getting parking tickets could keep you from getting your application approved. Or that you need to earn enough money. And so on. I always knew that Austrian citizenship laws were bullshit, but I learned just how much bullshit there is – and that our laws here are among the toughest of the world.

Kosanović has a deft hand at capturing all these absurdities and showing both the importance of becoming a citizen (and how unaware citizens usually are of their privileges) and the frustrations that come with it, including also the doubts about maybe havint to let go of another part of your identity. Luckily, she also has a sense of humor though, so the film had me laughing as well as getting angry as well as shedding a discrete tear here and there at folks’ happiness of being successful.

Unfortunately the film ends openly – Kosanović’ own citizenship application is still on-going and hasn’t been decided upon. But even there, she found a very nice way to find closure for the movie regardless. I hope that she can soon have this joyful closure in her life – and that she will continue making movies.

Summarizing: infotainment in the best sense – educative and fun.