Ulrich Seidl’s latest film caused much controversy upon its release in Austria. The film is about people and basements and what people do in their basements in their free time. The film is about obsessions. The film is about brass-band music and opera arias, about expensive furniture and cheap male jokes, about sexuality and shooting, fitness and fascism, whips and dolls. A film essay that is both funny and sad, it uses the director’s characteristic film tableaux to delve into the underground of the Austrian soul.
Austria, 2014, 85min, directed by Ulrich Seidl