SHORT NEWS

Four Austrian films at the 41st TORONTO film festival

Shortly after world premiere in Venice, Locarno or Sarajevo Ulrich Seidl’s Safari, Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel’s Mister Universo and Lukas V. Rinner’s A Decent Woman are moving onto their North-American Premiere at the TIFF. Ruth Beckermann’s The Dreamed Ones is part of the festival’s Wavelengths-selection.
The German-Austrian co-production Toni Erdmann by Maren Ade will be screened within Special Presentations.
 
 
 

Masters

 
SAFARI
directed by Ulrich Seidl
produced by Ulrich Seidl film Produktion
International sales: Coproduction Office
 
Africa. In the wild expanses, where bushbucks, impalas, zebras, gnus and other creatures graze by the thousands, they are on holiday. German and Austrian hunting tourists drive through the bush, lie in wait, stalk their prey. They shoot, sob with excitement and pose before the animals they have bagged. A vacation movie about killing, a movie about human nature.
 
 
 

Contemporary World Cinema

 
A DECENT WOMAN
directed by Lukas Valenta Rinner
produced by Nabis Filmgroup
International sales: FiGa Films
 
A housemaid, working in an exclusive gated community in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, embarks on a journey of sexual and mental liberation in a nudist swinger-club boarding the high security walls.
 
with: Irdide Mockert, Martin Shanly
 
 
MISTER UNIVERSO
directed by Tizza Covi & Rainer Frimmel
produced by Vento Film
International sales: Be For Films
 
The young lion tamer Tairo is unhappy with his present life situation. He uses the loss of his talisman to make a trip through Italy searching for the man, who gave it to him a long time ago.
 
with Tairo Caroli, Arthur Robin, Wendy Weber
 
 
 

Wavelengths

 
THE DREAMED ONES
directed by Ruth Beckermann
produced by Ruth Beckermann Film Production
 
The themes of love and hate are depicted in the movie DIE GETRÄUMTEN (The Dreamed Ones). At center stage are the two poets Ingeborg Bachmann and Paul Celan, who came to know each other in post-war Vienna. Their dramatic postal exchange creates the textual basis of the film. Two young actors meet in a recording studio to read the letters. The tumultuous emotions of proximity and distance, fascination and fear captivate them. However they also enjoy each other’s company, arguing, smoking, discussing their tattoos and favourite music. Yesterday's love, today's love and tomorrow's: where the lines are blurred lies the heart of the film.
 
with: Anja Plaschg, Laurence Rupp
 
 
 

Special Presentations

 
TONI ERDMANN
directed by Maren Ade
produced by Komplizen Film (D), coop99 filmproduktion (A)
International sales: Be For Films
 
Winfried doesn’t see much of his working daughter Ines. The suddenly student-less music teacher decides to surprise her with a visit after the death of his old dog. It’s an awkward move because serious career woman Ines is working on an important project as a corporate strategist in Bucharest. The geographical change doesn’t help the two to see more eye to eye. Practical joker Winfried loves to annoy his daughter with corny pranks. What’s worse are his little jabs at her routine lifestyle of long meetings, hotel bars and performance reports. Father and daughter reach an impasse, and Winfried agrees to return home to Germany. Enter flashy "Toni Erdmann": Winfried’s smooth-talking alter ego. Disguised in a tacky suit, weird wig and even weirder fake teeth, Toni barges into Ines’ professional life, claiming to be her CEO’s life coach. As Toni, Winfried is bolder and doesn’t hold back, but Ines meets the challenge. The harder they push, the closer they become. In all the madness, Ines begins to understand that her eccentric father might deserve some place in her life after all.
 
with Peter Simonischek, Sandra Hüller