Discoveries from Austria World Cinema

Max goes to the sauna. With that, he doesn’t just open the door to a steam room, but also to an eccentrically askew parallel world.

The artist studio is decorated with a rug, a chaise lounge, a small table, a plinth, a couple of copies of classic sculptures, a vase with flowers, a few prints on the walls, and on the wood paneled lower half of the wall, an 8-pointed star [Saturn-Film's logo]. The artist is wearing a white shirt over his grey trousers, shirt and necktie, and he is wearing black shoes. With hammer and chisel, he applies the last touches on his last piece of sculpture - The Three Graces, standing nude on a rectangular podium covered with a white bed-shirt. He steps back, contemplates his work, and rejoices on the beauty he has achieved. He goes out momentarily, and brings a bottle of champagne and a glass; before drinking, he makes a toast to his finished statue. He drinks, smokes a cigarette, and contemplates his work - until he falls asleep on the chaise lounge. Only then do The Three Graces stir, and tip-toe around their creator. One even dares to approach her lips to the artist's.

Since the spring of 1943 and during the national socialist regime, a branch of the Mauthausen concentration camp had been located in the Upper Austrian village of Zipf. The prisoners were forced to work in a factory in which the propellants for the "Wunderwaffe" (wonder weapon), the V2 rocket were tested. Most of the people who live in the vicinity of the former concentration camp deny this. A documentary film which confronts a historic actuality with oral witnesses.

In the near future, two lesbian cat-humans break out of their enclosure to roam the world. An eclectic, queer, and post humanist trip in which learning to see through (human) cat-eye slits becomes the first step toward antifascist resistance.

Marie Kreutzer's film avoids stereotypes of teenagers. Instead of proceeding from the assumption that having problems is simply part of being 14, the protagonists are shown in the context of their everyday lives. The camera follows Theres, remaining close to her body, her gestures and the objects of her attention.

Depicting the biography of a corrupt banker poses a cinematic dilemma. How can the intentions of an individual systematic contexts and historical eventualities be brought into harmony? Thomas Furhapters nearly one hour film Michael Berger Eine Hysterie turns this problem outward by not covering up the moment of speculation. The subject of the film, Austrian investment banker Michael Berger, who became a dollar millionaire through a risky hedge fund, remains a chimera an absent individual who also cannot be captured through his crime.

Confusion comedy with musical interludes around a carnival ball, to dare the pretty shop assistant for a fashion store with one of the best gowns of her salon and posing in her embarrassment as the wife of a guest. - Harmlessly entertaining comedy, a little bit too poorly to bring to bear the first-time meeting of three most popular Austrian comic specialists Moser-Slezak-Romanowsky at that time appropriately.

Seemingly stranded and enthralled like a somnambulist: a female figure amid a rocky, dried-up riverbed. Motionless, exposed, and yet turned inward. Now entwined in the branches of the sparse vegetation, now lying on the delicate fissures of the parched ground, from these convergences and from the interplay of images arises a sort of approximation, or analogy.

On their way home from a party „The Escapist“ is haunted by what they are tying to flee from. After they’ve arrived at home they are overpowerd by the unavoidable.

A young journalist receives an immersive introduction to the erotic art of shibari, a non-monogamous couple has their dynamic tested by the arrival of an uninvited guest, and a sleeping stranger on a train sends ripples through the relationship of the man and woman who find her. An anthology of female-focused shorts exploring six new flavours of love and desire.

In August, 1956, Elvis Presley started shooting his first feature film, Love Me Tender. At his side was his manager, Colonel Tom Parker and his just-hired secretary, Trude Forsher. ELVIS AND THE GIRL FROM VIENNA is Trude’s account of how Elvis’ career went from a southern United States singing sensation to a global legend. Over the five years that Trude worked with Elvis and the Colonel, she observed first hand the legendary moments in Elvis life. It is not only the story of Elvis’ rise to fame, but of one of his most personal confidants, who escaped the ravages of WW2 to get the job a million girls dreamed of - Elvis private secretary.

The Man Who is Talked About is the overly agreeable Toni Mathis (Heinz Ruhmann), a gent constitutionally incapable of saying the word "no" (or "nein," this being a German picture). Though he'd rather breeze through life without responsibilities or obligations, Toni agrees to study zoology in college because his uncle (Hans Moser) wants him to. Alas, despite the Herculean efforts by Toni's servant Hassler (Theo Lingen) to prepare his master for his final exams, Toni forgets to show up for the finals and is expelled post-haste. In desperation, his uncle arranges for Toni to get married, and once again our hero just can't say no. Trouble is, he falls in love with trapeze artist Bianca (Gusti Huber), whose father won't let her marry anyone except another entertainer. Undaunted, Toni studies a book on show business and tries out for the vaudeville stage, and the picture isn't even halfway over yet!

Straddling two continents, the pearl of the Bosphorus is home to little-known wildlife. Despite pollution and the presence of countless boats on the river, various species of dolphins live in the strait. Wild boars swimming away from the rapid urbanization are sometimes spotted there. Every year, tens of thousands of migratory birds such as storks, buzzards, and short-toed eagles also fly over Istanbul. On the outskirts of the city, a new animal species, a cross between a wolf and a stray dog, is spreading.

It is the world's most mysterious manuscript. A book, written by an unknown author, illustrated with pictures that are as bizarre as they are puzzling - and written in a language that even the best cryptographers have been unable to decode.

The sets and costumes by Ponnelle are truly reflective of the 'grand style'. Plus the fact that the two lead characters are portrayed by top singers in their absolute prime - both Gruberova and Araiza weren't even 35 years old at the time of this performance, makes this production the most convincing both dramatically and musically. The conducting of Fischer is good - he makes the music come alive, much more so than the MET version.

Thumb wrestling coach Coach Steve and his new protégé are battling for the Austrian championship. Coach Steve wants to take advantage of his last chance at a title. However, the competition seems insurmountable.

Hermann, a clumsy but kind-hearted young man who selflessly cares for his eccentric grandmother, receives a box brimming with strange chestnuts from his globetrotting grandfather one fateful winter morning. Hermann promptly builds a rickety chestnut stand in front of the house, where he soon meets the beautiful Hannah, whose charming nature immediately captivates him. The romantic moment lasts only briefly, as Hermann is sentenced by his grandmother to shovel snow.

Billy Roisz taps into our sensual pleasures with this experimental interpretation of Hieronymus Bosch’s iconic triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights. The largely abstract landscape, stemming from both analogue equipment and ‘deep dreaming’ – a generative AI technique based on neural networks – ranges from paradisiacal to hellish. Combined with the chirping, ticking and pounding soundtrack, in which field recordings have also been incorporated, the temptation is almost impossible to resist.

Two sisters from Vienna, Helga Feldner-Busztin and Elisabeth Scheiderbauer, recount their deportation as children - ages seven and fourteen - with their mother to the Theresienstadt Ghetto/KZ, while their father was sent to Auschwitz. Miraculously surviving, their firsthand memories document the mechanisms and daily realities of Nazi terror. The film interweaves these testimonies with 2D animations situating time and place, and features international artists (e.g., Iris Berben, Konstantin Wecker) who interpret moments of suffering through contemporary performance and music.

"The Tales of Hoffmann" - The story of the poet Hoffmann, who falls in love with a mechanical doll, loses his mirror image in Venice and finally liberates his lover from the clutches of a sinister doctor.

Packed with intricate melodies, harmonies, and instrumentation, Johannes Vogel conducts the Synchron Stage Orchestra to perform Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 in E Minor Op.98 in this enthralling live concert stream. Captured in Vienna’s state-of-the-art Synchron Stage recording facility, experience the thrills and swells of a 60-piece ensemble – 40 string, 9 woodwind, 9 brass, and 2 percussion – comprised of talented musicians from renowned Viennese orchestras. With origins that date back to 1884 in Mürzzuschlag and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Symphony No. 4 was introduced to the public on 25 October 1885 in Meiningen, Germany. In this modern-day performance, Brahms' fourth and final symphony continues to pulse with positive energy and swirls with trance-like melodies that’ll please classical fans far and wide.

A quiet, unassuming man sentenced to a long term in a maximum-security prison uses his time to study and begins to write cryptic short stories.

Judit is up to her neck in art studies and the elitist art community but chucks it all to pursue a successful career as a billiard professional -- not exactly a likely alternative in real life, but certainly more lucrative. Just as she is finally at the apex of her chosen second field, Judit encounters male jealously and/or aggression in the form of intentional snubs from this different class of snobs, or in the worse instances, rape. Director Kitty Kino portrays many of the male figures in this film as weak, or drunk, or simply offensive, and because of the emphasis on those traits, the film will raise objections from some viewers. On the other hand, many women might see this film and feel that at least it brings up the difficulties women can face in getting ahead in a male-dominated arena, instead of side-stepping or ignoring the role of male prejudice.

The island of Corsica boasts spectacular mountain vistas filled with unique wildlife. Explore the shrubland and meet moufflons, hybrid pigs and more.

A man is murdered on a remote riverbank, and a young woman confesses to the murder to the police that same night. Forensic psychologist Karla Eckhardt identifies the confessed perpetrator as Anna Lobrecht, whom she had classified as a compulsive liar in a report two years ago. It's possible that Lobrecht isn't telling the whole truth this time either.

Georg works up at the highway. He collects the toll from the tourists; he collects the toll from the truck drivers. All of Europe has to go by him. Below, in the shadow of the mighty bridge, Georg lives with his parents in an old farmhouse with its empty stall. Georg makes a career for himself. And then, he falls in love with a young farm woman. He must decide between love and his job.

Wolf, a dangerously wealthy but gravely ill businessman, invites his brother Paul, now a Vatican priest, to his remote castle seeking absolution, which alone can restore his virility and power.

Bohuslav Martinů's Greek Passion, which outlines a serious, very topical problem today, which is the position of refugees in a foreign, often hostile environment, is among the composer's most important works in terms of both ideology and art. The English libretto was based on the novel "Christ Recrucified" (1951) by the Greek writer Nikos Kazantzakis, which takes place in the first decades of the 20th century in the harsh Greek countryside.

With sometimes painful directness, Valie Export conducts a psychological investigation of the body in this film performance, externalizes an internal state. In front of a police photo showing two children who were sexually abused by their parents, she tortuously cuts into her cuticles until blood drips into a bowl of milk on her lap. On top of the symbolic plane of blood and milk, the physical effect on the viewer of her destructive act of self-mutilation is extreme.

Out of a desire for adventure, a middle-class university student (Mike Sarn) joins a political revolution. Unexpectedly, the women are victorious; they dress in uniforms and proclaim a military dictatorship to be ruled by a senile puppet. All writers are persecuted and tortured. Of course, the public takes the side of the attractive meter maids. Retaliatory strikes are sometimes successful, but the country's top minds are gradually wiped out.

Brenner Pass, Alpine border, spring 2016: the Austrian government announces the construction of a border fence, expecting a shift of the refugee routes to Italy after the Balkan route is closed. The residents fear the fence just as much as the supposedly threatening influx of foreigners to their homeland. Two years later, the fence is still rolled up in a container, as the inrush of refugees never occurred.

This documentary feature addresses the question of how gay men lived and could live their lives under 'real socialism'...

An oil complex burns. A young man is caught and caged. A young woman flees, injured—into the forests, where the dream of another future shelters. A state psychologist is assigned to assess—yet trusted truths falter: What does a just life look like in a wounded world?

Excerpts from some of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's outstanding operas performed at the Vienna State Opera, played by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Rudolf Moralt. Cinematically modest, as it focuses entirely on depicting the performances, but musically delightful.

Philipp Jedicke’s second feature documentary presents itself as a cineast eulogy for the Viennese pop scene as a curious and heterogeneous bunch with an extremely idiosyncratic radiance.

In order to find each other again, Lena and Andi decide to retreat to a remote holiday cabin deep in the mountains for a long weekend. When Andi finds out one morning that Lena has suddenly disappeared without a trace, the situation escalates. He goes in search of her and penetrates deeper and deeper into a mysterious and dark world of horror...

Two young men coincidentally meet in Vienna. Their talk, stories and attitudes are wonderfully made and crafted. Short movie about heartbreak and relationship.

The architectural theorist Friedrich Kiesler designed a site for film projection that directs focus to the screen, allowing everything around it to be forgotten. With animated spatial models of the cinema that Kiesler constructed for the Film Arts Guild, Ganaël Dumreicher conveys the idea of a borderless cinematic space in a surrealistic, visceral, and extremely direct way.