Himmel oder Wienerstadt

A film about news, life and death. Before the media became so prevalent, we were concerned about our immediate neighborhood. At the end of the day, news was the subject of our conversations, but now it's possible to converse with someone at the other end of the globe. We do it all the time. It's simple. The world has become one big neighborhood. Now Headline News has replaced the back fence. That's the news service of the eigthies. It's a new idea and a new approach.

Four film-makers embark on a cinematic survey of Austria, documenting the political and social state of the nation and its people. An eye-opening experience. In the wake of the 1999 elections, four filmmakers decided to go out with cameras in hand and gauge the mood of their countrymen, who had made Jörg Haider's FPO party the second most powerful in Austria. What they found was a country apparently "like any other" , filled with nice ordinary people. Who feel perfectly comfortable dreaming of a possible future without foreigners, or speaking with equanimity about the old days of the Third Reich.

When confronted by soldiers and a reporter in a subterranean concert hall within his presidential palace, dictator Diman Cha delivers a series of powerful monologues to the world’s media revealing his deranged nature, accompanied by organist Martin Hasselböck‘s improvised classical pieces of music.

Nana Iaschwili, a teacher from East Europe, wants to emigrate to America to start a new life. After landing in Vienna, the authorities notice her falsified visa and arrest her. Nana, threatened with deportation, would prefer anything except being sent back and escapes. She must keep on the move constantly. The police are hot on her trail. Together with other illegal aliens, Nana, alias "Suzie Washington", flees to the so-called "green border", the no-man's-land between East and West. The police, cows and lonely men keep getting in her way.

Alone in a secluded mansion, Giacomo Casanova cries out then collapses. When the mysterious and beautiful writer, Elisa von der Recke, comes to visit, it breathes new life into the old man. A movie that captures the myth of the greatest seducer of all times, Casanova, his story is told both through fiction and on-stage opera performances that unravel the tale of his adventures, his passions, and ultimately his fear of death.

Ozren is raised in Vienna by his mother Silvija, who works as a prostitute, and his aunt and uncle. The film shows the demimonde of Vienna in the early 1990ies and deals with Ozren's finding out that his mother is not a waitress (as he was initially told) and with the way he copes with it.

The sun blazes down from the sky with destructive power; exposing oneself to its light means death. People have transposed everyday existence to the night. In the metropolis of HALF WORLD a culture based on various languages and lifeforms has grown rampant. Everyone is looking for a way to survive.

A sophisticated hotel somewhere on the French coast. Silvia and Gustav meet here, they have recently split up after 19 years of marriage. But they know each other well, and a fight begins in which Silvia always seems one step ahead. So she quickly realizes that Gustav's new, younger girlfriend is already expecting a child from him. The secret meeting between Silvia and Gustav takes a new turn when Gustav suddenly finds out that the conference center in Toulouse, where he is allegedly staying, was blown up in a terrorist attack.

In 1976, Jack Unterweger was convicted for the murder of Margaret Schaefer and sentenced to life in prison. While imprisoned, he committed himself to reading and writing, eventually earning literary respect both inside and outside the penitentiary. In 1984, his autobiography "Fegefeuer" (Purgatory) became a bestseller.

Mythological hero Scipio must choose between Fortune and Constancy in this superb 2006 Salzburg Festival production of Mozart's "Il Songo di Scipione," directed by Michael Sturminger and starring Blagoj Nacoski, Louise Fribo, Bernarda Bobro, Iain Paton, Robert Sellier and Anna Kovalko. The Chor des Stadttheaters Klagenfurt and the Kärntner Symphonieorchester, conducted by Robin Ticciati, provide accompaniment.

Anticipation in Salzburg Festival: the new production of "Don Giovanni" is in its final rehearsals and the arrival of the famous conductor Marius Atterson is imminent. Unfortunately, the equally famous opera director David Roth feels so provoked during a rehearsal that he shoots himself offside with his impertinence. The festival president remains cool and persuades Beate Zierau - a director who is rightly regarded as particularly difficult - to join the production. A piquant choice, as Atterson and Zierau were once married.

The play about the rich man's death.