
The World Is Blue at Its Edges
By Iris Blauensteiner, Christine Moderbacher
2021 | 14 min | Icons & Media Art
A mother shares her thoughts with her unborn child. It is a glimpse into an uncertain future and yet full of hope.


By Iris Blauensteiner, Christine Moderbacher
2021 | 14 min | Icons & Media Art
A mother shares her thoughts with her unborn child. It is a glimpse into an uncertain future and yet full of hope.

2016 | 18 min | Animation
People on the move. Outside, a guardrail flies by in a blur. Drawn lines are superimposed on it. This film is about lines of life, lines that stretch from Eastern Europe to Germany. The filmmakers mix real images and animations superimposed on them, which repeatedly convey impressions of the emotional lives of the people portrayed. The drawings are also a protective cloak and a symbolic narrative device. On the soundtrack, the migrants talk about their existence in Germany. Often they are unemployed, ...

2023 | 81 min | Drama
Abby (Sierra McCormick), a teenager approaching her 15th birthday, is going through a difficult phase in her life, caught between childhood and adulthood. When her mother dies, she has to move in with her father (Jason Butler Harner) and his younger girlfriend. She feels alone in the world and is struggling to cope with her loss. So she tries out new identities, drugs, and sexual experiences that she believes will give her strength and a sense of control. Caught between new and old friendships and ...

2023 | 87 min | Sci-Fi & Fantaisie
World events indicate that humanity is unlikely to stop self-inflicted climate change. Too little has been done in recent decades. But how will climate change affect people's psyches? This question is the focus of director Robert von Wroblewsky's film, which tells a grim near-future story. The story follows two unnamed women. The mentally ill mother joins a sun-worshipping cult to find her salvation. Her guilty conscience about the environment and hope for improvement drive her to radical acts. ...

2009 | 87 min | Documentary
In all its intensity and diversity, the everyday miracle of birth is shown with the means of direct cinema, without commentary, interviews or explanation, and connected to the cycle of standardized processes in the Viennese hospital. A chronicle of the beginning of life and its organization. "Sober and at the same time of physical force, intimate, yet not voyeuristic, distanced, but never apathetic." (Jury statement Duisburger Filmwoche) "The balance of the design draws us into the spell of the ...

1984 | 5 min | Shorts
This unique architectural documentary shows both the apartment's interior, with its art posters, dishes strewn across the kitchen table and leafy plants as signifiers of a non-conformist lifestyle, as well as views of the courtyard and street. The studio's inhabitant remains unseen but is present through the point of view cinematography. The International Building Exhibition (IBA) awarded the film its prize for its creative use of cinema in exploring urban space and lifestyle. The short experimental ...

2022 | 79 min | Documentary
Hayat is a skilled seawoman who sails across the Arctic, navigating far away from people and her troubled youth in France. But when her little sister Leila gives birth to a baby girl Inaya, the promise of new beginnings is on the horizon. We witness how the sisters’ worlds are turned upside down, each going on a deeply personal journey, guided by the Northern Star to overturn their family’s fate. Distance is what characterizes the relationship between the two sisters, who are each other’s opposites ...

2019 | 77 min | Drama
Elena is a student in Minsk making illegal deals in the Chernobyl death zone to save her father from going to prison. She is in an intense but increasingly destructive love affair with Viktor. When her father is arrested for illegal metal trading and tax evasion, in order to continue his business, she has to keep traveling to the Chernobyl restricted zone. She is fascinated by the deceptive beauty, but soon her life seems contaminated by a destructive force. "A very potent film, both dramaturgically ...

2018 | 101 min | Documentary
A semi-documentary that follows a group of young migrants in Vienna as they negotiate the maze of administrative procedures. In this clash of two worlds, real refugees who live in Austria, such as the young Afghan Bagher, play themselves. Bagher arrived in Vienna in 2015. Local residents defend the status quo against escalating immigration. The refugees have lost their homes and are refugees for a reason. Forced to flee their own countries, they are trying to adapt to the strange new environment. ...

2016 | 119 min | Documentary
A small French village on the border to Germany takes steps to transition into the post-oil era in a country that is heavily dependent on nuclear power. How did they do it and which steps worked out best? Journalist and filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin shot the film over four seasons in a crucial year in which almost the entire transition program was completed. At the initiative of the city of Ungersheim, a participatory democracy program entitled "21 Actions for the 21st Century" was launched in ...

2022 | 76 min | Drama
In this captivating Austrian drama, the serene life of a lesbian couple living on the outskirts of Salzburg is intricately portrayed through the eyes of a documentary filmmaker named Amira. As she delves deeper into their relationship, the film, directed by the talented Elena Wolff in her debut, unfolds a complex narrative of love, identity, and the subtle dynamics of power and vulnerability. The authenticity and innovative storytelling shine a light on queer relationships with unprecedented honesty, ...

1996 | 93 min | Timeless
In this award-winning doc, anti-racism activist Jane Elliott shows how she uses her "Blue Eyed Workshop" to make the life experiences of discriminated minorities more understandable. A former teacher from the Midwestern U.S., she has led a dedicated fight against prejudice, ignorance and racism for more than 50 years. In workshops, she divides people according to an arbitrary physical characteristic: BLUE-EYED and BROWN-EYED. She declares the latter to be better and more intelligent and endows ...

2021 | 116 min | Drama
Jana, a young woman, suddenly returns to Beirut after a long absence. She finds herself back in the familiar yet strange life she once left behind. The formidable pressure of fitting into the family dynamic anew while revealing details of her life abroad weighs heavily on her. Cornered, old fears and anxieties resurface and are underscored by the desolation of the city. In Ely Dagher's gracefully melancholic debut, Jana's apathy and depression function as a metaphor for the crisis-ridden Beirut ...