Discoveries from Austria World Cinema

A biography of the eighteenth century Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa.

For Kevin, a shy teenager, being bullied is part of everyday life. But one day an older guy, Benny, comes to his aid. Impressed by Benny's self-as-sured appearance, Kevin seeks his company from then on, and increasingly idolizes him. But Benny's intention is not to protect the younger boy, quite the contrary.

This film does not deal with Chornobyl, but rather with the world of Chornobyl, about which we know very little. Eyewitness reports have survived: scientists, teachers, journalists, couples, children... They tell of their old daily lives, then of the catastrophe. Their voices form a long, terrible but necessary supplication which traverses borders and stimulates us to question our status quo.

In April 1945, as Jewish prisoners on a death march from Hungary reach an abandoned barn near an Austrian village, their SS guards vanish, leaving them starving, freezing and helpless while villagers remain divided over their fate. Desperate for food and hope, a former Budapest opera singer among them devises a plan: with fellow inmates and willing villagers, they stage Johann Strauss’s “Wiener Blut” in the barn to earn the means to survive.

It is the year 2000 and the World Global Union is in charge, although other countries are allowed to elect their own government leaders, as long as they support the Union. When Austria's newly-elected president, played by Josef Meinrad, makes his inauguration speech he declares Austria independence and issues an edict ending Austria's financial support for the Global Union.

Revue film on ice. An excellent figure skater did not qualify for the European Championships, but as a participant in show programs he became known as "Mr. X." Funds from an unknown benefactor began to arrive at the small club in the town where he trained...

He is the despicable child killer in Fritz Lang's M. Drawing on testimonies and archives, this portrait sheds light on Peter Lorre's turbulent career and complex personality, unable to escape the monster that made him famous.

Two years after the moving documentary "Desert Warriors: Lions of the Namib", we find the five young lions who have grown up well. After leaving the lands of their childhood, they went in search of females with whom they could found new clans.

A mix between Italian neo-realism, German expressionism and Austrian exploitation.

With a pair of scissors and some paper, he turned his art into a weapon the Nazis feared. A look back at the eventful career of satirist John Heartfield (1891-1968), pioneer of photomontage and modern graphic design.

Georg, who is happy with his job as a scientist, with his loving wife and with his three children, hears one day that an accident has happened in a chemical plant nearby. All of a sudden, he finds himself face to face with one of the victims. The man, whose face has been eaten away by the sour gas that escaped from the plant, is staring at him in despair. Does Georg really see the man or is this a mere hallucination? Is he becoming insane or is he more alert to the dangers of the world than the common man?

A documentary about the life of Karlheinz Böhm from his film career to his charity activities in Ethiopia.

A documentary that shows the different fauna that populates natural habitats of France, and the people that aims to protect and preserve them.

They never expected Kyra to turn up again. The two brothers and their sister, brought together when their father dies, are stunned by the appearance of their sister.Kyra suddenly vanished over twenty years ago during the breakup of the hippie commune where they were all born. She is like a stranger to them now... but when she discovers that her very existence has been kept secret, she starts to uncover old mysteries. And soon all the brothers and sisters find themselves unearthing the roots of their childhood memories they had suppressed in order to survive. In her debut feature film Marie Kreutzer embarks upon an intriguing and disturbing journey into the past, a gripping study of belonging and solitude, bonds and freedom. Written by Novotny & Novotny Film

Tommy can't take it anymore. At home, the 14-year-old Vienna boy is the only man among many women: Sister, mom, grandma and great-grandma tugging at Tommy's nerves, also the schoolboy suffers from lovesickness. Nothing left to do but get out so Tommy travels to his father Hubert. Shortly after Tommy arrives there, grandma Lore-Mu and the rest of the clan join…

Based on the example of a village inn, the film portrays an escalating generational conflict—and the difficult handing down of responsibility, space, and tradition.

A film about our garbage that is found in the most remote areas and about the people who try to dispose of it. Not only in the sea and on coasts, also in the Arctic, the jungle, high up on the mountains and deep inside the desert, garbage is found almost everywhere in various forms and dimensions, sometimes as whole car wrecks, old TV sets or simply construction rubble, but mostly in the form of disintegrated plastic particles a few millimetres in size. Humanity has handed out its visiting cards thoroughly.

Set in the early '80s, a time when a new wave of leftist political consciousness and activism had swept German youth (and was just about to disappear as quickly as it arrived), this satiric comedy follows a young couple, Ingo (Hans-Jochen Wagner) and Nadja (Valerie Koch), as they travel to Austria for a weekend of skiing near her parent's luxurious chalet. While Ingo and Nadja have an open relationship, he thinks its time that they commit to one another exclusively, and is hoping this weekend will convince her this is a good idea. However, their privacy is interrupted when several guests arrive -- friends of Nadja's brother Knut (Ingo Haeb), a noted political activist, who, unbeknownst to her, has also planned a ski weekend. As the guests await Knut's arrival, they get the unpleasant news that he's been arrested during a demonstration; several propose that they should come to his aid, while the majority decide instead to go skiing as a way to pay tribute to his commitment to the cause.

A portrait of a dedicated filmmaker who is a charming yet elusive figure in thrall to cinema and the constant perfection of his craft.

The experiences and adventures of three “thirty-something” buddies who involuntarily find themselves caught up in civil unrest. At first it is simply a jaunt in their boss ‘Porsche’ which their “borrow” without permission to drive to Triest, however, it becomes an adventure.

A strange man is involved in a village massacre and drug dealing.

South African enfant terrible filmmaker and artiste-cineaste Manus Oosthuizen meets with Rotten Tomatoes-approved indie film critic Babette Cruickshank in an Echo Park sound studio. With key members of Manus's crew joining, they record an audio commentary track for his new elegiac feature documentary Razzennest. But the session goes down a different path... cazzart! The ultimate elevation of arthouse horror, just not as you might expect.

The story of Austrian, Johann "Jack" Unterweger, who wrote a book about his criminal past while serving a life term in prison for assault. In 1974, Unterweger murdered 18-year-old German citizen Margaret Schäfer by strangling her with her own bra, and in 1976 was arrested and sentenced to life in prison.

A look back at the eventful life of Niki Lauda. The documentary tells of Lauda's childhood, his meteoric career in motorsport, marked by his dramatic accident and his unique comeback, right up to the end of his racing career, as well as Niki Lauda's reorientation as a pilot, airline manager and clever entrepreneur.

Hertha is determined to shoot her unfaithful husband. But by chance, she becomes a hostage-taker, giving her neurotic victim Philipp the worst hours of his life. A road movie across Lower Austria: Not even the Waldviertel wine bottles remain unscathed in the gunfire.

Vienna, 1951. Ferdinand Godai is a professor of operetta at the Academy. Disguised as a porter for a costume party, he ends up in a drunken mood at the South Station. There he meets Anton Lischka, a genuine Viennese porter with a fiery temper, who asks him for his collegial help. Ferdinand falls in love with the sweet Gabi, who turns out to be a new colleague at the Academy. A series of adverse circumstances force him to continue his complicated double life as a fake porter and a genuine professor. Lischka, who becomes increasingly annoyed by his "colleague's" clumsiness, is also drawn into the confusion. Only Gabi sees through the deception and even contributes to its escalation in order to teach her beloved professor-porter a lesson in womanizing.

Katrin Fischer, a successful businesswoman and participant in a snuggle seminar, is looking forward to an evening tête-à-tête. But instead of romantic hours for two, a bullet in the heart awaits her.

The 1791 La Clemenza di Tito (or 'The Clemency of Titus') marked Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's final opera seria. With a libretto by Metastasio (edited slightly by Caterino Mazzolà), the work dramatizes the palace intrigues surrounding emperor Titus's attempts to coronate a new bride and the envious Vitellia's attempts to have Titus assassinated (with the help of Titus's friend Sextus) following the deposition of Vitellia's emperor father. Stage director Martin Kušej mounted Tito in August 2003, at the Felsenreitschule in Salzburg; a film of that live performance now appears in this home video release. The cast includes Michael Schade as Titus, Vesselina Kasarova as Sextus and Dorothea Roschmann as Vitellia. The Wiener Staatsopernchor, under the baton of Nikolaus Harnoncourt, provides musical accompaniment; Jens Kilian designed the sets.

The story of Jakob, a perpetual student who wanders dreamily through life until one day, with the help of his Super-8 camera, he gains a different perspective on the world. In a museum, a mysterious woman suddenly approaches him while he's filming with his Super-8 camera.

Don Juan arrives in a Spanish town and immediately becomes embroiled in amorous adventures. While looking for love affairs, he meets the beautiful Donna Anna, the commander's daughter, who mistakes the masked cavalier for Don Octavio because of his height and clothing.

A midwife is called to her lover's wife of all places.

Compelled by the inheritance of a mysterious box of letters, American aesthete Felix Pfeifle begins the journey of a lifetime to reach the source of the correspondence: the last heir of the Holy Roman Emperors, aging Archduke Otto von Habsburg. The quest takes Felix across America , over the Atlantic and beyond.

Stories about citizens of a big city who encounter a variety of fates as a result of their difficulties in communicating with each other.

The young veterinarian Christine from Vienna stands on the sunny side of life. She is in a relationship with the attractive management consultant Alexander, has just completed her doctorate and is looking forward to a dream job. And she is also unexpectedly pregnant. But after an altercation with Alexander, she loses the child. She desperately flees to her father Georg, a painter to whom she had no contact for many years. He lives on an inherited family estate in Saxony. But instead of rest there is new excitement. At the neighboring riding school she gets together with coach Markus. His rude methods of horse education do not suit her at all. After some difficulties, the two get together and she can also win the trust of a difficult, valuable horse.

A young Viennese policeman can not free himself from his mistress and is also extorted over his illegal arms business.

The film is based on the figure of the police inspector Simon Polt of the Austrian author Alfred Komarek.

A short documentary about Chun, who lives in Vienna.

The dashing pilot Gary inherits a financially troubled fashion house. It is only thanks to the shy employee Eva that the company takes off...

Based on the novel Trilby by George du Maurier. A girl named Trilby meets Svengali, a musician and hypnotist, who claims he can turn her into a talented singer via hypnosis.

Werner Boote presents an up-close and personal view of the controversial and fascinating material that has found its way into every facet of our daily lives: plastic. He takes us on a journey around the globe, showing that plastics have become a threat for both environment and human health.

In 1882 a country girl disappears from a small Hungarian village. The inhabitants suggest that she was murdered by the Jews. Everything is done to accuse them before the trial. A study in stubbornness, racism and intolerance and how to fight against it.

Midwives usually attend more than a thousand births in their lifetime, be it in hospitals, at birth centers, or in homes. The personal stories of midwives from Ethiopia to Brazil, Austria to Nepal, and Morocco become a mirror that reflects the political and economic situation of women, their status, and demands in society, from the perspective of these wise women who are the first to see us in this world.

In 1939, after barely escaping the Nazis, a Gypsy family returns to Switzerland only to be torn apart by racial persecution in the benign guise of children's welfare. This fictionalized story of Jana, an eight-year-old Gypsy girl snatched from her parents and consigned to a life of orphanages and bleak foster homes, is based on a little-known chapter of Swiss history: From 1926 to 1972, the state-supported Pro Juventute, a children's aid foundation, forcibly removed some 700 Gypsy children from their families, in order to sever the ties with their culture and assimilate them to a "better way of life." The underlying aim was to preempt a new generation's caravans from following their nomadic traditions along Switzerland's country lanes.

Eva has mainly cared for her young son in recent years, but now the charming mid-thirties wants to return to her job as an interior designer. The talented designer applies for the equipment of a hip scene, but does not receive any support from either her busy husband or her retired father. In this emergency, the old childhood friend Lucy comes in, who makes the prototypes for Eva's designs in her small carpentry shop. Even as a substitute father for Eva's little son Jona makes the carpenter a good figure.

Four years have passed since the unsuccessful search of the "brothers" Ernst, Ludwig and Adrian Stadler ended after a common father with the determination: "I have three still brothers". Ernst has now acquired fame with a cooking program on television. He lives separately from Iris The mother of his twins. Ludwig operates a well -walking bourgeois restaurant. Adrian helps in the kitchen there and, because of a side jump by friend Michael, moves from the shared apartment to Ludwig into the mother's house. The ratio of the three fake brothers still shapes the ratio of the three fake brothers. When Adrian processes the experiences of the father search in a novel and develop between Ludwig and Iris tender gang, even the resilience of Stadlerscher family gang seems to have finally exceeded their limits and their lust for the argument have lost the unifying force.

A remake of the 2005 film "Adam's Aebler." The criminal Adamos, serving his prison sentence in a social rehabilitation community, encounters the blind devotion of Father Ivan. A black comedy with confident sarcasm, cynicism, and irony.

Two students, Sarah and Philip, after meeting online develop a tragic plan to end their lives. They decide to meet and hike into the mountains where they would jump off a cliff together. They share their thoughts and struggles, looking into enduring issues about family, depression and fulfillment, while also touching upon the unique issues of growing up in the modern world.

Italy gives sponsors the choice between banishment and prison. Mario Adorf decides to go into exile.

Vienna's high society parties with sex, drugs, alcohol and young models. Hanna von Stezewitz stands in the center of it all. She's young, attractive and rich, head of a corporate group and one of Vienna's most important financers.

The German ex-top model candidate Luna imagined it completely differently. She stands at the train station in Linz with all her luggage because she was promised a place in an influencer shared apartment. But Luna has too few clicks, too few followers and too little fame, which is why she's thrown out of the shared apartment before she's even been inside. Things are also going differently than expected for programmer Heribert, because he actually wanted to present the app idea at a pitching contest at Ars Electronica Center that would free him and his development team from his boring help desk job. But his pitch is at first pathetic, then embarrassing and ends in a faux pas with a shitstorm. And so he and his colleagues are thrown out before they can even develop. When the completely inexperienced but fearless would-be influencer Luna Heribert discovers first in the viral video and then in real life in Linz, she makes him an offer because she knows: we are better together than alone!

Burgtheater recording, based on Shakespeare's play.

There are few places on earth that have such a diverse variety of terrain and range of climates concentrated in a relatively small area - temperate coastline, scorching arid deserts and tundra, tropical rainforests and frozen snowcapped mountains. And there are few places that are as heavily exploited by humans, yet remain a wilderness.

Dust, a split-personality cyborg of fluid gender, zooms through time and space in search of their own memories and a sense of understanding. They travel from the Planet of White Dust where war is constant, to the Planet of Blood and Swelling, a hybrid of their father’s body.

Vienna, a few days before the shots in Sarajevo which would trigger what was first called the Great, later simply the First World War: Job seekers from the crown lands flock to the capital of the empire in search of a better life, even if it's the factory hell . A new social class is growing faster and faster, the city overflows with the poor, lower-class workers and the unemployed. Labor fighters can be heard louder, better, clearer, every day. The nobility strongly suspects its end.