Elfriede Irrall

Vienna, 1937, on the eve of the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany. The young and inexperienced Franz Huchel begins to learn about both the joys and hardships of life by working as an apprentice to the mutilated war veteran Otto Trsnjek in a small tobacco shop, where he meets the famous psychiatrist Sigmund Freud, a regular customer, who will become a valuable friend in times of chaos and uncertainty.

Luisa returns to her parents' home when her father becomes bedridden. She's expected to help her mother deal with the drudgery of caring for him, but their relationship is tense and the physical contact with the man proves to be unpleasant for her. In quiet moments she remembers scenes from her childhood Long repressed and forgotten memories force their way back into the present, until a final realization brings a family secret to light.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

A series of knife murders have an odd feature about them; the victims find that their luggage has been packed for them just before their deaths. Scotland Yard investigates, and discover that the murders are linked to an addictive drug called Mescadrine.

No synopsis available yet.

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.

Georg, a self-confident man of 40, feels it as a heavy defeat when his wife suddenly leaves him. He has always been the superior man, to whom his wife now reacts with speechless contempt. In numerous contacts with people for whom he feels affection, he tries to catch himself.

An aging Southern Belle complicates life for her ambitious son and crippled daughter because of her own warped views of what life should be.

An unconventional essay film that interrogates the visual and ideological legacy of the Vietnam War. Blending staged scenes, archival footage, photographs, and philosophical dialogue, the film follows various characters — including an American soldier captured by North Vietnamese villagers — as they reflect on violence, memory, and image-making. Set partly in West Berlin and partly in reconstructed spaces representing Vietnam, the film avoids traditional dramatic narrative in favor of a fragmented montage of voices, documents, and reenactments. Interweaving love stories, political debate, and historical commentary, Farocki creates a critical reflection on how war is represented, seen, and imagined, both in cinema and in public consciousness. The result is a complex meditation on images as weapons and instruments of perception.

A portrait of a single day in the late summer of 1956, toward the end of Bertolt Brecht's life, as he prepares to leave his lakeside home, surrounded by the women who form his extended family.

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This first film adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s play about class distinctions was made in 1955 in the Vienna Rosenhügel studios, but it was only premiered five years later. Curt Bois plays the rich capitalist Puntila who only becomes somewhat agreeable when he is drunk (which he is most of the time in this film). In his inebriated state, Puntila not only gets amorously involved with three different ladies but also suggests that his daughter Eva marries his chauffeur Matti. The chauffeur, however, doesn’t really agree…

Twelve classmates meet up again after thirty years. They chat, banter a little - and suddenly the mood changes. Because it turns out that the envied manager Iris is terminally ill...

When Johanna's blind grandmother Ruth tells her the secret about their Jewish past, the “sleeping dogs” of the family history awake.

This film is based on the actual events referred to as the "Mühlviertler Hasenjagd" (Hare-hunt in the Mühlviertel) which occurred in February 1945 around the Mauthausen concentration camp. 500 Soviet officers form death block 20 attempt to escape, but only 150 of them actually succeed. Following the tally-ho of the SS, a barbaric manhunt begins. Only very few fugitives survive. With a lot of good luck, the two young officers Michail and Nikolai reach the Karner family's farm. Frau Karner persuades her husband to hide the two escapees.

Fat German star restaurant chef Gregor shows romantic interest in waitress Eden Drebb. She's happily married to hunky Xaver Drebb, but feels romantically neglected. Gregor's deserts seduce her, first trough her brat daughter Leonie, to spend time with him and his fabulous dishes. That soon becomes a rather platonic affair, and domestic troubles. Xaver decides to exact revenge on Gregor, with tragic results.

The emotional story of an adulterous relationship between a journalist and a teacher.

The story of an old married couple. As she dies his imagination calls her back to life and they have a wonderful time together like they didn’t have for many years....

The Thorwald family is well-off and contented when a tragedy strikes: the father is killed in an accident. Miss Thorwald takes over the raising of her children, four girls and two boys with the youngest already fifteen years old. She manages to keep them together in spite of the fact that their economic situation deteriorates after World War I. Never one to look too critically upon her brood, the woman undergoes a moving and gradual transformation as the adult activities of her children bring home the fact that none of them are what she had once imagined.

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.

No synopsis available yet.

A singer flees from Nazi Germany, travels to Paris and befriends a young writer, his lover and a professor.

The "Our Gang" type adventures of German working class kids from a Berlin apartment building (number 67) during the early 1930s. With Nazism's rise, however, their tight-knit group unravels. One leader, Paul, becomes a Nazi.

When actress Elfriede Irrall wants to make a film about her mother Erika Trojan in 1977, she is skeptical at first, but then ready to talk. Erika Trojan speaks surprisingly openly of her life in Vienna, of National Socialism, of family constraints and the desire for liberation, of love and sexuality. The explosiveness and timeliness of the result are without comparison.