Discoveries from Austria World Cinema

It was supposed to be just a review of a cinematic apparatus, but it has turned into a storm.

The film delves into the life and work of the filmmaker Georg Stefan Troller, linking clips from films with his astute self-analysis.

The wildlife of the tundra on Alaska's north coast is particularly threatened by climate change.

A retrospective on Hermann Nitsch, Actionist and painter, composer and stage designer. He is one of the most renowned Austrian artists of today and nevertheless still divides the art world as before. Nitsch belongs beside Günter Brus, Otto Mühl and Rudolf Schwawrzkogler to the most important main actors of Vienese Actionism. At the beginning of the sixties he carried out his first 'Actions' in Vienna, which involved several trials and three terms of imprisonment. His main work, the "Orgy Mystery Theatre", inspired by Greek mythology, as well as by Antonin Artaud or Sigmund Freud, has been introducing, building up and carrying on all art forms since this time. The documentary includes a 4-hour overview of his Actions from 1962-2003, as well as an interview from 2005.

In Comparison revisits issues explored in the director's 2007 two channel installation Comparison Via a Third. Spanning continents and cultures, the film focuses on the brick in its many contexts, from the collective efforts of a community building a clinic in Burkina Faso, through semi industrialized moldings in India, to industrial production lines in Germany, France, Austria and Switzerland. Through its notable structure and its captivating rhythms, In Comparison presents various methods of labor production, allowing for an assessment that changes with every layer and goes well beyond a simple binary divide.

Funeral ceremonies in the attic of a spooky villa. The elderly aunt gathers her great-grandnieces around a child's coffin for a funeral prayer. Folded hands, furtive glances, a rosary and a body chair are the ingredients of an eccentric children's game in which the illustrious group stumbles between intimidation, rebellion and a dangerous staircase over questions of existence.

The frankest of films from within a shelter for homeless women. Their stories usually combine domestic violence or acrimonious divorce, with mental fragility. Sonja is trying to make contact with her estranged children. Rula, is unsuccessfully trying to build a home with a new husband. This doc offers a unique window into their world. An evocative reminder of the fragility of human existence, and the value of a stable psyche.

Is heavy manual labour disappearing or is it just becoming invisible? Where can we still find it in the 21st century? Workingman's Death follows the trail of the HEROES in the illegal mines of the Ukraine, sniffs out GHOST among the sulphur workers in Indonesia, finds itself face to face with LIONS at a slaughterhouse in Nigeria, mingles with BROTHERS as they cut a huge oil tanker into pieces in Pakistan, and joins Chinese steel workers in hoping for a glorious FUTURE.

The film observes the implementation of an idea by a special company, the Waldviertler shoe factory, in one of Austria's most precarious regions, the northern Waldviertel. How can the visions of a just world that drive company owner Heinrich Staudinger be realized in the economic developments of the present?

A filmmaker and his siblings research the experiences of their late father, who survived the Holocaust during World War II.

Caught between teenage emotions and expectations, lovebirds Lena and Adam try to have the perfect first time together.

A man sentenced to death escapes from a military prison and finds shelter with a resistance group that is set to liberate the country. The repressive enemy never sleeps. The escaping condemned man is also no longer the old warrior he once was: he is broken - wonders whether the resistance can put him back together.

The confrontation between two women - a choreographer of a successful troupe and a prima ballerina. Stung by the news of her upcoming dismissal, the prima begins to scheme..

A Kellergasse – the cellar lane – is one of the distinguishing cultural and physical features of the winegrowing region Niederösterreich – Lower Austria. There are more than a thousand of them. Until recently, wine was not only stored in the Kellergasse, but pressed and fermented there as well. Today, the Kellergassen have less to do with occupation and more with recreation. A documentary by Georg Riha follows a year in the life of this valuable cultural legacy.

Short animated film about a tree in a park.

Several murders in the eerie atmosphere of an abandoned factory site are solved by a clumsy detective assistant.

Documentary and pseudo-documentary procedures were filmed simultaneously by two cameras from different viewpoints. The material was then divided into phases of movement. In the montage each phase was doubled. The techniques used in this process vary. Also the sound was doubled, again using different techniques. Two realities, differently perceived according to the conditions of this film, were edited into one synthetic reality, where everything is repeated. This doubling up destroys the postulate: identity of copy and image.

A documentary that analyzes the modern educational system and argues that it squelches children's capacity for imagination, creativity, and independent thought.

Performance conceived by Erich Wonder & Heiner Müller for the 300th anniversary of the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Vienna. The band, Einstürzende Neubauten, is located on a glass palace/stage on wheels (accompanied by the slavish trotting of huskies) which is slowly moving on the nightly ring road of Vienna.

In a TV film about the film Casablanca, Kren is meant to read aloud three letters that Groucho Marx wrote to Warner Bros., because they wanted to take legal action against him over A Night in Casablanca. The recorded material could not be used on television and was meant to be destroyed. Kren found it and showed it uncut with its repetitions.

The story of a luckless address: Vienna, Schottenring 7. This was the site of Ringtheater were nearly four hundred people died in a fire in 1881. Where the emperor subsequently built the Sühnhaus ('the house of atonement') to make up for it and no-one wanted to live there.

Four kayakers (ab)use rafting as a means to catch fish on Slovenia’s chalk stream called Krka. Casting flies amongst castles and cattails, this became the arena for a gruelling competition that applied pressure of all kinds.

On their way up to a mountain cabin, Sarah and Thomas run into a dense mist and seem to go astray in the dangerous altitudes. In search of the cabin they encounter increasingly strange events. Lost in those heights, eventually a life-threatening battle between reality and illusion begins...

In the eighties, Hito Steyerl shot a feminist martial arts film on Super-8 stock. Her best friend Andrea Wolf played the lead role, that of a woman warrior dressed in leather and mounted on a motorcycle. The engagement expressed in the formal grammar of exploitation films later became Wolf’s political praxis: She went to fight alongside the PKK in the Kurdish regions between Turkey and northern Iraq, where she was killed in 1998. Now honoured by Kurds as an “immortal revolutionary,” her portrait is carried at demonstrations.

Agnes Hvizdalek - voice Billy Roisz - electronic, electric bass guitar, devices - recorded live @ sperrmuecc studios Vienna/Austria June 2023

Kindra, an attractive 21 year old politics student in Vienna, has taken on the spying activities of her parents who have disappeared. Kindra steals UN secrets and sells them anonymously over the internet. Her buyer, Hal, is suspicious that his usual source has been replaced by an imposter and when Kindra persuades Hal to pay her in advance for information that she does not possess, the deception triggers an all out hunt, and it's only a matter of time before Hal and his organisation get to her - unless the other side get to her first.

The driving force behind the action is the scheming impostor Nebel, who fleeces the nouveau riche, especially Florian von Fett, formerly a master butcher, now a "partikulier" (private entrepreneur). Fett does not feel at home in the modern society to which he now belongs thanks to his wealth, and he covers up his insecurities with behavior that is sometimes naive, sometimes crude. The Marchese Vincelli embodies the parody of the ruined nobility, which has long since become unfit for life due to its excessive sensitivity, while the landlord of "Zum silbernen Rappen" is the cunning social climber of the people. A marriage-hungry old maid, an obediently curtsying daughter, and a snappy maid complete the panopticon of this cozy yet uncomfortable Biedermeier world.

A young woman confronts her trauma while on a date in a "Dating in the Dark"-format.

"The Treasure Hunter" is a portrait of writer, publisher and book collector Hermann Gail, who in his youth gave up on life as the result of a terrible sin. He was saved through an unconditional devotion to art.

A period drama set in a Volhynian village.

A family has the death of a pregnant daughter on its conscience. Their hollow understanding of tradition leads them to insist on revenge by the sword, and so the girl's boyfriend must die.

Maya suddenly wakes up in the middle of the night and finds herself at "Am Himmel" in Vienna. She is not dead, she is in Vienna. It is night. She checks out her body. What is she missing?

Across the Border is a polyglot portrait of ideas about borders at the beginning of the 21st century. In an episodic journey five directors from Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia, present their view and vision of nation, identity and Europe: By placing their personal cinematographic imprint on multifaceted portraits of their home countries, they open up a broad space for encounters with the strangers next door.

Nora is hunting for a job. She wants to be a journalist. One day she gets an offer she can't refuse: If she manages to produce a documentary within a few days and the documentary is good - she'll get a job. So she picks up her friend Wolfgang and an associate of his and the search for Romana Steiner - sole survivor of a monster attack that no-one believed happened. Nora wants to convince Romana to go back to where it all happened, hoping to discover clues that might lead to Romana as the killer. But as they enter the woods something is strange, because - something is really weird in these woods and maybe, just maybe, Romana was telling the truth.

A man gasps for breath until there is none left.

A young woman, Laura Spindler, is picked up on a country road in the Weinviertel region. Public prosecutor Fida Emam learns that the now 18-year-old was kidnapped in Vienna two years earlier.

Two girls in the disco give free rein to anger, nobody stops them.

Through thoughtful letters from prison, an anarchist incarcerated since 1980 reflects on his radical past.

When 13-year-old Lena tragically loses her mother, she must be strong and care for the newborn. Her father is no help. His grief for his deceased wife has a firm grip on him. Only when he hears about a parasitic fungus that enables communication with the dead does he regain his courage. Lena can't make sense of it. She believes the whole thing is pure fantasy. But then she begins to have visions that make it almost impossible for her to distinguish between reality and illusion.

When 9-year-old Ábel is attacked by his classmate Bence at school, his father decides to visit Bence's parents to put an end to the constant harassment. However, the conversation does not go as hoped and confronts father and son with a moral dilemma

A documentary about the race for the fastest connection and the most powerful algorithm in the high speed world of automated trading.

Emma is an unemployed housewife, whose children have grown up and moved out. When she finds out that her husband is looking for his sexual awaking, doing this by having an affair with another woman, Emma takes over a neon-lit sex-shop that she turns into an erotic boutique for women. This journey leads her into an adventure with a group of other women who are all looking for their own sexual awaking.

I love Vienna is a social comedy that explores the clash of cultures and values.

Two young Europeans - Eva, a journalist, and her cousin, Mike, a filmmaker, want to make a film about the secret cult of the Makonde in Mozambique: "Magic Africa". On the hunt after the secret cult, Eva becomes aware of the heritage of colonialism: unemployment and civil war. Mike has only one thing in mind - to sell their travel film.

A “test run” for Pfaffenbichler's hitherto unsuccessful attempt to adapt Oedipus. The film is occupied exclusively with blind people, whose faces are illuminated in such a way that they look like masks, completely indebted to the spirit of Greek theater.

The celebrated three-act opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart comes to life in this dynamic performance at the world-famous Salzburg Festival. Director Francois Abou Salem brings a modern Middle Eastern sensibility to this journey into Arabian and Muslim culture, filtering the comic tale of abduction for today's audiences. Soprano Christine Schafer portrays Constanze, a woman whose heart is torn between her fiance, Belmonte (Paul Groves), and her new master, Pasha Selim (Akram Tillawi). A sensual and resoundingly modern experience, this new interpretation casts new light on a classic musical work and infuses it with aching human emotion.

Winifred, the geriatric daughter-in-law of the famed composer Richard Wagner, talks about her cultural and political influence during the Third Reich. Yet in contradiction to the films's title, Winifred confesses nothing. The contradictions within her discourse do, however, reveal the extent of her delusions and political commitment as an unrepentant fascist. She paradoxically describes herself as a completely apolitical being, adamant that her classification as a grade three Nazi at the end of the war was a grave injustice. Still Winifred cannot contain her amusement when she recalls that after the collapse of the Third Reich, she was the only person left in Germany who would admit that she was a Nazi.

Salzburg Festival’s first-ever performance of Charles Gounod´s most famous and most performed opera! Internationally-acclaimed tenor Piotr Beczala triumphs in the title role as soul-selling philosopher Faust: “Piotr Beczala is a world-Faust” (Kurier) and “The well-deserved crown goes to a perfectly-cast Piotr Beczala” (Abendzeitung). Ildar Abdrazakov was “celebrated” (Broadway World) for his signature role as seductive and demonic Méphistophélès. Maria Agresta as convincingly innocent Marguerite struggling to resist temptation and to gain salvation: “She is fabulous!” (Süddeutsche Zeitung). “Spectacular and photogenic” staging (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) by award winning stage director and designer Reinhard von der Thannen. The Philharmonia Chor Wien and the Wiener Philharmoniker are performing under the baton of young Argentinian conductor Alejo Pérez.

Adele Spitzeder, an actress of medium talent, finds the role of her life as a dazzling financial genius, but in truth the operator of a gigantic pyramid scheme. With a brilliant appearance and empty promises, she serves the hopes and greed of her fellow human beings with virtuosity. With the help of a never-ending stream of money, she buys her way out of situations that would have landed others in prison long ago. Her enemies are just waiting for the pyramid to collapse and bury Adele - and countless small investors with her.