Lukas Weiss

As part of an unusual farewell ritual, two siblings end up at a Chinese restaurant. Both feel guilty after the recent death of their mother and find it difficult to broach the subject. At another table a father improves his daughter’s homework, at the next a date goes wrong, and somewhere in between, the server’s collar bursts. Though the tables are close together, the siblings hardly notice the little dramas taking place.

„Alone against the mob? Solo against the jobcentre? Classic suicide mission.” That much Mr Berger knows, working at the jobcentre phone support line. But fortunately, Marie is not alone, after she loses her job aged 58. She has gathered a highly specialized troop of long-term unemployed people, and together they can achieve anything.

Precariat meets high snobiety: With no-budget charm and wit, sophisticated characters, pointed dialogues, satirical social commentary and bitter plot twists, Sebastian Brauneis tells the story of a tenancy relationship in which law does not always mean justice, set against the backdrop of the Austrian housing market.

Autumn, as we all know, is when (over-)ripe things fall. Hollow political rhetoric about culture, for example, but also one-dimensional ideas about love and desire.