Discoveries from Austria World Cinema

A personal film about grief and farewell, about serenity and arrival as well as reunion and retrieval.

The inside of a Viennese section of the Austrian Socialist Party (SPÖ). The number of members has gone down, but otherwise everything is still the same. The group of indefatigable comrades and their new district representative, Brigitte Ederer, are accompanied in their groundwork; at the weekly section meetings, in their work in the district parliamentary party, at outdoor festivals, pensioners' parties and children's discos, collecting contributions door to door, during arduous confrontation with the inhabitants of the locality, and, not least, at the district elections. The election result of 9th October 1994 was a disaster for the party.

A "stroll" at various locations: the St. Marx Cemetery, the Prater park, Carnuntum. We see people taking walks, construction workers, people flying model planes and other little observations. Kren also used a short segment of found footage in colour which shows a woman in a bikini.

A semi-documentary feature about one of the biggest criminal cases in Austrian history – the letter bomb attacks of Franz Fuchs.

People talk about their murder fantasies and stage them as short films.

Beirut lies in ruins. After the explosion in the city's port, collective trauma rises to the surface. How can life succeed after such a tragedy? The film carefully observes the following three years and zooms in on the lives of Aya - a Syrian refugee girl, Selim - an activist and painter, the Aladdin family - mourning a tragic loss, Yasmin - picking up calls at a suicide prevention hotline, and Andrea - who still believes in the city's spark for change. Meanwhile, a smoldering fire keeps on lingering in the port’s silos like a cautionary tale. Is it time to leave?

The story of two newly enamored medical students, loosely arranged around recordings of various medical operations on the human reproductive system. Interspersed: a dark bar, populated by drug addicts and the "sexually abnormal," medical images of the sex of intersex people, sex changes and transplantation of animal genitalia.

Why do baby animals in the wild have small spots or stripes on their fur? Animals have developed these camouflage strategies for their own protection - baby animals in our wild are true masters of camouflage - in leaves, bushes, and even among trees...

Sports enthusiast Ernest is to cover 6,000 kilometers on his motorcycle in 15 days, crossing Austria, Italy, Switzerland, the Balkans and Czechoslovakia.

Documentary about alternative economic projects like a fair trade goldmine or a tea factory, that is owned by it's workers...

A dark comedy short film about grappling with the presuure put upon oneself for being perfect, even when just starting out, and learning to deal with things not always going according to plan.

When Johanna's blind grandmother Ruth tells her the secret about their Jewish past, the “sleeping dogs” of the family history awake.

An encounter between a young musician and a mysterious young woman who “works” as a scarecrow to “silence the birds,” and likes to spend time at the Armenian cemetery to talk with the dead.

Plácido Domingo, Sarah Brightman, Helmut Lotti and Riccardo Cocciante interpret traditional, European and American songs in Vienna, Austria. Vienna Symphony Orchestra is conducted by Steven Mercurio.

Adaptation of LYSISTRATA by Aristophanes

Falcos einziger Auftritt mit grossem Orchester Ein posthumes Geschenk zum 10. Todestag. Und ein Wunder moderner Tontechnik, mit deren Hilfe aus einem fragmentarischen Live-Mitschnitt ein Werk realisiert wurde, dass des Falken würdig ist. Ob "Jeanny", "Ganz Wien" oder "Amadeus" - Die Hits des Weltstars aus Österreich sind bis heute legendär. Doch das frühe Ableben des Künstlers machte viele Pläne und Hoffnungen zu Nichte. Auch jene, ein ganz besonderes Event noch einmal zu erleben, mit dem Falco im Jahr 1994 überraschte. Zum ersten und letzten Mal: Begleitet vom 80-Mann-Orchester des Wiener Neustädter Konservatoriums und vor mehr als 10'000 begeisterten Fans liess Falco damals den Domplatz erbeben. Niemand ahnte, dass dies das einzige Konzert dieser Art bleiben würde... Der Wunsch, Falco noch einmal in symphonischer Begleitung zu erleben, geht mit dieser DVD in Erfüllung

Filmed on tour at Berlin's Philharmonie, this account of the valedictory Ninth Symphony is an intense interpretation, expressing Bernstein's conviction that modern man had at last caught up with the message encoded in Mahler's last completed work. Having made his famous 1966 studio recording of "Das Lied von der Erde" in Vienna, Bernstein re-recorded this in Israel with the same searing subjectivity. René Kollo draws on the voice of a great Wagner tenor, while Christa Ludwig, the greatest exponent of the contralto songs at the time, is unbearably poignant in the final movement's fusion of elation and sadness.

In her desperate search for sleep seventeen-year-old Eva does everything to stay the night at other people’s houses where she watches others while sleeping. When being awake through the nights, Eva takes us to the backside of normal life at the same time forcing her family and friends to develop a different perspective on what they thought is „normal“.

"We, the Yazidis, became doves. Doves without wings", says Hedil. Stranded with her family in a Yazidi refugee camp in Eastern Turkey, she reminisces about her former life in Northern Iraq and recounts the horrors of her escape. The film follows two families' attempts at normality in an otherwise miserable place. (ML)

Amina Handke adapts the 1967 theatre play Kaspar written by her father Peter Handke. Instead of a young man being tortured by language, we meet an old woman played by the director’s mother, Libgart Schwarz, who loses her linguistic abilities while rehearsing for the very same play. What begins as a pure and playful family meta-fiction turns into a surreal, partly nonsensical Babylonian confusion, it’s just that it’s not different languages that are clashing but layers and fragments of the German language, the language of the father. The film avoids the traps of representational cinema. It’s all noises and muttering, injunctions and an almost Dadaist pleasure in repeating sentences until they completely lose their meaning.

After reporter Sabrina Meyers witnesses a gruesome murder linked to the assault of a mentally disabled girl, she finds herself stalked by a killer while the police refuse to believe her story. As she uncovers a vengeful plot by the victim's family, the bodies begin to vanish, leaving her isolated and targeted. Will Sabrina expose the town's dark secret before she becomes the next victim of the bloodnight?

Best friends, a special day, one night that gets out of control. It’s the end of term. Mona celebrates the beginning of the holidays with her friends Lisa, Joana and Paul and lots of beer at the beach. Mona’s new boyfriend is missing in their quartet. He has to work as a civil servant at the Red Cross until midnight. Later they want to meet at the Open-Air. The others from their crew are already at the festival. Especially Emil and his unavoidable shadow Chin are by now partying hard as the first band enters the stage. They are going to drink away their school stress. That’s the plan. But Mona’s start to the holidays goes differently than planned.

The first film about Viktor Schauberger's life's work. A comprehensive survey of historical facts, current research and various practical applications into both technology and the natural world.

Viktor is no longer alive. Anton travels to Istanbul to break the sad news to Aylin, a mutual friend. In this short film, Irem Gökçen and Aron Eichhorn create a study of things that are lost and those that are beginning, oscillating between the unsaid, melancholy, and courage.

Vaccinations are considered to be the greatest success in medicine. But are they really a comprehensive and safe protection against dangerous diseases? More and more evidence shows: The risk from the diseases that vaccinations are supposed to protect against are out of proportion to the side effects of the preparations! The film rolls up the biggest scandals with vaccines and at the same time explains where vaccinations are used everywhere.

Scenes from the beginning of the Russian revolution against the czaristic regime.

Paulie meets Paulie after a party in Vienna. Exhausted from the night's drinking binge, they exchange stories about a possibly shared past. What a joyful reunion!

They are the most common beings on earth. They have possibly been around as long as biological life has existed. They are considered dangerous and deadly – but they are much more than that. They are everywhere. Viruses.

In the loneliness of the Lower Havel lowlands, one of the last bird paradise in Germany, twelve-year-old Lea lives alone with her father Lutz, a passionate environmentalist. She is on the cusp of adulthood, confronted with the challenges of the present and the pains of the past. She often feels lonely in the childhood-remote world in which she lives, in which schools are closed and people leave. Even the father, who has withdrawn from the world, is increasingly becoming a problem for Lea, who longs for fellowship.

Jasmin and Lee have been lovers for three years. When they decide to go on a hiatus in Lee’s mother’s home on the Austrian countryside, they are accompanied by their friend and documentary filmmaker Amira, who wants to capture queer love for her graduation film.

How does dating and finding love work in an era where partnership has been radically redefined? All people share the yearning to connect and belong with others and the hope of experiencing genuine intimacy. Our three protagonists Sarah (Austria), Johanna (Germany) and Sampsa (Finland) search for love in very different ways and show that having faith in the most unusual of methods can open up undreamed of opportunities.

When we first meet Eleanor, she’s doing fitness exercises. She seems to be enjoying her life to the fullest, has a colorful wardrobe, keeps active, and loves to dance. Every day, every hour is precious. Can it be that such an energetic woman is already 92 years old? Eleanor wants to hold on to life and cannot bring herself to make a will.

The standard model of human coexistence is a monoculture: a nuclear family, two generations, under one roof. This promises a sense of security and cozy refuge from a hectic, threatening world. The directing duo interviews “thought artist” Simon Nagy on the topic and embarks on a highly experimental visit to the row houses.

Çağla moves to Austria for university, facing the loneliness of a temporary dormitory, a liminal space that shapes her emotional journey. Meanwhile, her family in Istanbul struggles with the uncertainty and frustration of living in a rented apartment. Their home, demolished due to aggressive urban policies under the guise of earthquake risk prevention, remains incomplete for years. Through intimate yet online conversations, they share their longing for belonging, the weight of waiting, and the mundane tasks of daily life. In these cold, fractured spaces, time seems to blur, and memories echo as voices.

A man is building an electronic machine, which purpose is unknown. His wife, who is living with him falls in love with another man (Mr.Nowak)(who in reality are three children in a trenchcoat), threatening the relationship. Her Husband becomes increasingly insane as nobody else is noticing the obvious fact, that it’s three children in disguise. We follow the relationship of Mr.Nowak, who becomes an alcoholic, and the woman and her sexual frustration with her new „man“. It ends with a death, with a human-annihilation-machine, a philosophical look into Hölderlins poems, and the realisation, that being an adult isn’t all that fun.

Making art in beautiful Carinthia: A critique of social criticism.

After their father's sudden suicide, the three very different brothers Neo, Falko, and Adam travel to his holiday home in Hungary. At the scene of the suicide, the men want to process the event and explore a crucial question: Which of them is truly the biological son of their deceased father?

It was planned as a journey to one of the most beautiful and most fascinating islands in the world! It turns out as their most dangerous and toughest adventure ever! the professional Freeskiers Phil Meier, Matthias Haunholder and Matthias Mayr try to reach the Island Onekotan far out in stormy seas to ski the most unique Peak in the World.

Presents moving images of society’s outsiders, the impoverished and oppressed, whose lives are contrasted with the opulent surroundings of contemporary Vienna.

Claudia makes Katrin to work for her provider for Claudia's material security and to leave the "shitty work outside". They are both prostitutes. Katrin learns that the price for being independent is high and goes with physical destruction.

Garbage men. Garbage women. They swarm out daily to eliminate the excrement of the good life from the metropolitan circuits. The film documents the thorny path from a Viennese civil servant's comfortable life into the Privatopia of Greater Los Angeles. Our protagonists are five trash collectors. They live in Vienna, Genova, Amsterdam, New York and Los Angeles.

An unknown disease has annihilated the human race. Sand - just a tiny heap of white sand is all that is left of a human being. When Ruth and Sylvester meet, they are the only survivors. They are immune against the deadly disease; on the brink of madness, they find themselves incapable of shifting the burden of responsibility for mankind, which fate has placed upon them. Could they do anything but start from scratch?

"The middle line marking of the road is filmed through the windscreen of a moving car simultaneously with its own reflection in the driving mirror. The repeated interruptions of the space/time line are as big as a car. The car as a connecting link in time. The cinema as interruption of normal time flow.” – VALIE EXPORT

A documentary about the filming of "Mark of the Devil" and it's sequel "Mark of the Devil II" directed by Martin Nechvatal.

In a burned-out shack in the great American dust bowl, a pox rages through a pioneer family.

Is a murderer always a murderer? Karla Eckhardt supports easing measures for convicted murderer Anton Lisky. But as soon as she is released, Lisky's work colleague is killed. Was Karla wrong?

Ercan is fed up with clichés of migrant roles. Instead of playing a terrorist on television, the Turkish actor is trying to get a role as Hitler in a new movie.

When the seriousness of life begins for us, we are given an empty backpack, which we will gradually fill with our story. We mistakenly refer to this as "our life." But it is merely our life story and is often closer to suffering than to life in the true sense of the word. We are only too happy to identify with this sad story. Not because it's so beautiful or fun, but because others do it too, and it makes us feel less alone. We leave the disturbed self behind and disappear into the "we." This is how we find protection and security in the collective madness. We will explore this unbearableness in the second part of my lecture trilogy. It cannot be ruled out that we will once again encounter our evolutionary companion, the Neanderthals. They were ahead of us in many ways: They had time. We only have the clock...and it hasn't been ticking properly for a long time.

A giant Monster comes to the city of Salzburg, destroys cars, kills the father of the director (Freud!) and finally meets fate (God!).