Florentin Groll

300 years of a remarkable musical instrument. Crafted by the Italian master Bussotti (Cecchi) in 1681, the red violin has traveled through Austria, England, China, and Canada, leaving both beauty and tragedy in its wake. In Montreal, Samuel L Jackson plays an appraiser going over its complex history.

A portrait of Austrian artist Gustav Klimt whose lavish, sexual paintings came to symbolize the art nouveau style of the late 19th and early 20th century.

Ema & Death’s-Head deals with the precarious border between humanism and the protection of one’s own life in situations when one excludes the other. Marika Sándorfi is hiding a Jewish boy during the dramatic era of the First Slovak State on the Slovak-Hungarian border. Šimon Holan, the boy in hiding, has a special ability to survive thanks to dreaming and a child’s fantasy.

A series of snapshots from the life of a fictional actress named Shirley serves to weave together thirteen paintings by Edward Hopper (e.g. "Office at Night", "Western Motel", "Usherette", "A Woman in the Sun") into a fascinating synthesis of painting and film, personal and political history. Each station in Shirley’s professional and private life from the 1930s to 1960s is precisely dated: It is always August 28/29 of the year in question, as the locations vary from Paris to New York to Cape Cod.

Vienna in the eighties. An accidental meeting in a restaurant. She, Hannah, is Jewish and has a live-in lover, a young and successful architect. He, Friedrich, is a German and lives permanently in Vienna. Two worlds collide with another, begin to become entangled in each other. Friedrich too, has his problems. He is a "German", which fascinates and repels Hannah at the same time. She tries to get over her confusion by being ironic and flirtatious. Simultaneously, what she has tried to suppress breaks through in flashbacks...

September 11, 1898: The imperial family’s personal physician, Dr. Herman Widerhofer, is deeply shocked by the news that an anarchist has assassinated Empress Elisabeth in Geneva. He then shuts himself up in his private rooms and recalls the empress’ fateful life. We learn the truth about Elisabeth, as the doctor knew more about her than anyone else.

A young composer moves from Berlin to the island of Ibiza and begins a friendship with an elderly woman whose painful past has caused her to reject everything to do with Germany, including her native language.

Amidst the glitz and glamour of her chart-topping career, singer Melanie Buchinger retreats to the peaceful mountains, seeking to rediscover her true self and carve out a new path for her future.

An elderly man returns to Vienna to fulfill a promise he and his wife made when they first got married 50 years ago.

When Hans Hass seeks a secretary for his Viennese office in the summer of 1947, Lotte Baierl applies for the job. She has just graduated from high school and is a big fan of Hass. Lotte is learning how to handle diving equipment and underwater cameras, as she wants to participate in the next expedition. Hass, who is initially against the participation of a woman, changes his mind. The TV movie tells the story of the two diving pioneers.

A seven-year-old girl living in Salzburg with her father makes friends with an old witch.

Through previously undiscovered private letters, photos and diaries that were found in the Himmler family house in 1945, the "The Decent One" exposes a unique and at times uncomfortable access to the life and mind of the merciless "Architect of the Final Solution" Heinrich Himmler.

Herbert lives a rather simple life, left to his own devices. He works as a projectionist in a shabby Viennese movie theater and lives alone with his red nameless cat in the free caretaker's apartment of a somewhat run-down apartment building. Now and then he visits his mother in a nursing home, meets with an old friend of his father, or comes to meetings of a savings club. Saving money is pretty much the center of his life because he has a dream. He wants to emigrate to the U.S. to buy his own movie theater and to reunite with his long-lost father. But when Rita, a young student, moves into the apartment building things in his life are changed completely.

It is summer and five overly-seasoned college students have been given the task of writing a group paper on Franz Kafka’s “The Country Doctor.” At first they are reluctant, but in a cloud of hashish they come up with the idea to film the story instead. Their film location is a campsite in Sicily, which they had already booked ages ago for summer vacation. The technical department consists of a couple “unique” men from the Vienna film scene. To everyone’s surprise, they even manage to get Kafka himself to play a supporting role in the film.

Styria in the second half of the 18th century: It's Christmas in the forest home of the poet Peter Rosegger. During Advent, Peter, a young forest farmer, first recites his dialect stories to an elegant crowd at the Reininghaus family home, becoming a major attraction in Graz. Hans, the hostess's nephew, befriends the young man, and a close relationship of trust develops, from which each benefits in his own way. During a winter sleigh ride, Peter recounts to his friend Hans the best Christmas experiences from his childhood. He recounts how he got lost in the forest, how he went to collect Christmas cheer, and his adventures with a quaint man named Bremer Sepp.

Jan, a freelance journalist, and Sabine, the mother of his two children and a textile designer, have no money. Sabine is abandoned by her husband and then gets caught up in the bureaucracy. A sober psychogram of a woman who is fighting and hoping for her life and everyday life.

Stillness, observing and the absurd are the secrets behind Ilse Aichinger’s poetry, as brought to life in the film WHERE I LIVE. Figures from stories come to life in a house, whose stories sink in upon themselves. Also, never before shown Super-8 footage shot by Aichinger, inspires awe at our ability to find ourselves, as well as the ways in which we find ourselves. Taking a sensuous approach, the film engages with Ilse Aichinger’s work, which stands out in the 20th century for its singularity whilst remaining timeless in its existential dimension.

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.

SOKO Donau is an Austrian television series.

After his handler is killed, police dog Rex teams up with recently-divorced inspector Richard Moser to investigate crimes and solve mysteries on the streets of Vienna. And they sometimes get help from their two-legged friend, Inspector Stockinger.

Schlosshotel Orth is an Austrian television series.

Angelika Schnell is the head of homicide and living proof that chaos is just another form of order. Nevertheless, she is a brilliant investigator - even if her methods are sometimes quite unconventional: In addition to hard facts, she also allows her distinctive inner voice to apply, which often leads to incomprehensible but very important conclusions...