Favoriten

Favoriten

2024 · 118 min · ★ 5.0 · Documentary

Favoriten is one of the most culturally diverse neighborhoods in Vienna and the starting point of Ruth Beckermann’s latest documentary, in which she accompanies a class of pupils from the age of seven to ten. Their ambitious teacher, Ilkay, is determined to create an inclusive, supportive and safe environment for the kids. The majority of children don’t speak German at home, some families are wounded by war experience and many face discrimination. Despite few resources from the educational system, Ilkay gently navigates her class through daily adventures, defeats and victories. The result is an astonishingly cheerful portrait of a small community mirroring the complexities of contemporary European society. The film is an ode to childhood, celebrating the work of educators and lifelong learning in and outside the classroom.

Directed by Ruth Beckermann · Written by Ruth Beckermann

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İlkay İdiskut Self

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3h 27m together

Favoriten

The Dreamed Ones

Both from Ruth Beckermann.

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The Dreamed Ones

The Dreamed Ones · 2016

The Dreamed Ones

MovieDocumentary

It’s not uncommon for a film to have a moving love story at its core. Yet this particular set-up is unusual. The lovers here are Ingeborg Bachmann and Paul Celan, both important representatives of post-war German-language poetry. The story of the relationship between the Austrian and the Jew from Czernowitz is told through their nearly 20-year correspondence (1948–1967). Or, more precisely, by a young woman and a young man reading from their letters in a studio in Vienna’s venerable Funkhaus.

The Waldheim Waltz

The Waldheim Waltz · 2018

The Waldheim Waltz

MovieDocumentary

Ruth Beckermann documents the process of uncovering former UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim’s wartime past. It shows the swift succession of new allegations by the World Jewish Congress during his Austrian presidential campaign, the denial by the Austrian political class, the outbreak of anti-Semitism and patriotism, which finally led to his election.

The Paper Bridge

The Paper Bridge · 1987

The Paper Bridge

MovieDocumentary

Beckermann's parents met in Vienna after the Holocaust. Tracing the migratory paths of her family before World War II, Beckerman returns to the European Jewish communities which inspired her childhood stories.

Homemad(e)

Homemad(e) · 2001

MovieDocumentary

Marc Aurel-Straße in Vienna: The last surviving Jewish textile merchant in the former textile district, the Iranian hotel proprietor and the Café Salzgries and its regulars. Between the summer of 1999 and spring 2000, Ruth Beckermann undertook a series of small journeys on and around her own doorstep and investigated her local area with the help of a film crew. This documentary film also gives an insight into the political changes when a far right Party joined the Government coalition in Austria.

East of War

East of War · 1996

MovieDocumentary

White-tiled rooms, neon lighting; on the walls black and white photographs documenting the atrocities committed by the german Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front in WW2. Against this background former soldiers talk about their experiences beyond the bounds of "normal" warfare. An uncompromising film on remembrance and oblivion.

Return to Vienna

Return to Vienna · 1983

Return to Vienna

MovieDocumentary

Franz West (1909-85) remembers his youth in Vienna: the variety of the Jewish population of the so called Matzah-Island, his commitment to the worker’s movement of the Red Vienna and the rise of Austro-fascism and National Socialism. West’s masterly narration combined with impressing archive footage illustrate and elucidate the complex Austrian history between WW1 and WW2.

A Fleeting Passage to the Orient

A Fleeting Passage to the Orient · 1999

A Fleeting Passage to the Orient

MovieDocumentary

Images of Egypt: prolonged tracking shots through the streets of Cairo, cafes, bazars, hotels and gardens, footage of the desert and the sea. Ruth Beckermann is on the trail of Empress Elisabeth of Austria ("Sissi"), who travelled the world restlessly and was in Egypt incognito one hundred years earlier. Since Elisabeth refused to be photographed after the age of 31, she inspires projections and fantasies.

American Passages

American Passages · 2011

American Passages

MovieDocumentary

Initially, there's that moment of happiness: an African-American celebrating in Harlem cheers "We're free!" as if Barack Obama's victory meant the ultimate end of slavery. AMERICAN PASSAGES is an associative journey through the United States: a disillusioned Iraq veteran, gay adoptive fathers, black judges, white party animals and a pimp at a casino table in Las Vegas. The extreme contrasts of black and white, rich and poor, winners and losers are often as surprising as the meaning of the constitutional right to the pursuit of happiness in these times of crisis. An epic panorama of America.

Toward Jerusalem

Toward Jerusalem · 1991

Toward Jerusalem

MovieDocumentary

In this documentary road movie, Austrian filmmaker Ruth Beckermann records the diverse views and activities of Israelis and Arabs as she travels along the route from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Mutzenbacher

Mutzenbacher · 2022

MovieDocumentary

An audition for men aged between 16 and 99. There are no props nor make-up, just pure improvisation. All that is required is the willingness to engage openly with the topic and language of the words on the page. No small challenge, since the text in question is the scandalous novel published anonymously in 1906 “Josefine Mutzenbacher, or the Life Story of a Viennese Whore, as Told by Herself” which, as this film confirms, continues to be the subject of passionate and controversial discussions about desire, even today. What might be world-class pornographic literature for some is seen by others as an abusive depiction of child sexuality.

Arena Squatted

Arena Squatted · 1977

MovieDocumentary

Based on material that emerged during the occupation of the arena in the summer of 1976, the film shows the organization of collective work, the negotiations with the city and community and finally the demolition of the buildings.

Zorro’s Bar Mitzvah

Zorro’s Bar Mitzvah · 2006

Zorro’s Bar Mitzvah

MovieDocumentary

Four 12-year-olds—Sharon, Tom, Moishy, and Sophie—prepare for their bar or bat mitzvot.

Those Who Go Those Who Stay

Those Who Go Those Who Stay · 2013

Those Who Go Those Who Stay

MovieDocumentary

Rain on a window pane, a fire truck, a tomcat with innumerable offspring: it is an intentionally unintentional gaze that allows for chance encounters, for stories and memories - leads that Ruth Beckermann follows across Europe and the Mediterranean. Nigerian asylum seekers in Sicily, an Arab musician in Galilee, nationalists drunk on beer in Vienna, the Capitoline Wolf, and three veiled young women trying for minutes to cross a busy road in Alexandria. Threads, cloth and textiles pop up like book marks in a fabric of movement, of traveling or seeking refuge.

The Mozart Minute

The Mozart Minute · 2006

The Mozart Minute

MovieDocumentaryMusic

Twenty-eight well-known filmmakers living and working in Austria were invited by WIENER MOZARTJAHR 2006, to produce associative miniatures on Mozart. Requirement: they had to be one-minute artistic short films. The directors come from a whole range of different backgrounds, ranging from animated, experimental and short film to documentaries and feature films. The result is a multi-facetted sampler of diverse formal and contextual positions with regard to Mozart’s person and his influence on today’s society, art and culture. The contributions run the gamut from experimental-conceptual statements through socio-critical and documentary observations to pithy short feature films.

WAX & GOLD

WAX & GOLD · 2026

MovieDocumentary

Starting from a hotel in Addis Ababa built by Emperor Haile Selassie, Ruth Beckermann explores a place both familiar and foreign to her. Archive footage and conversations on the ground combine personal reflections with the histories of Ethiopia and Europe.

Jackson/Marker 4am

Jackson/Marker 4am · 2012

Jackson/Marker 4am

MovieDocumentary

Introduced with a quote that invents its own creator, someone is dancing in a figure skating costume to a piece of music that conceals its source.

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