Two new documentaries at Locarno’s Settimana della critica:Andreas Horvath met the more or less modern gold miners of the Klondike gold fields in EARTH’S GOLDEN PLAYGROUND, Marc Bauder a former top manager reflecting in MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE on mechanisms that led to the financial crisis.

Sarajevo selected four Austrian entries for competition.

66th Locarno Film Festival (August 7 to 17, 2013)

EARTH'S GOLDEN PLAYGROUND by Andreas Horvath (produced by Andreas Horvath)
supported by bm:ukk, Land Salzburg, Stadt Salzburg, Klondike Institute of Art and Culture)

Since the first Gold Rush in the late 1890s the Yukon and its legendary Klondike gold fields has been a remote land shrouded in mystery. In times of economic instability the high price of gold makes the search for the precious metal all the more attractive. Individual miners compete in this modern day gold rush tale about the quest for the fabulous “mother lode”: the source, which – despite decades of exploitation – is still believed to lie hidden underground.

directed and written by: Andreas Horvath
cinematography, editing, production by Andreas Horvath

MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE by Marc Bauder
(bauderfilm (D), NGF Geyrhalter Filmproduktion)
supported by Fernsehfonds Austria, Hessischer Rundfunk

What mechanisms are responsible for each new generation of business executives acting according to similar patterns? Are caps on salaries or the amounts of government subsidies the solutions to the economic crisis? And has the financial sector perfected a phenomenon that has deep roots in our society? (Marc Bauder, director)

directed and written by Marc Bauder
Cinematography: Boerres Weiffenbach
Editing: Hansjoerg Weissbrich, Rune Weiffenbach
produced by bauderfilm (D), NGF Geyrhalter Filmproduktion (A)


19th SARAJEVO Film Festival (August 16 to 24, 2013)

COMPETITION - Features

●  Daniel Hoesl: SOLDATE JEANNETTE (European Film Conspiracy)
Fanni has had enough of money and leaves to buy a tent. Anna has had enough of pigs and leaves the farmer – one needle in the hay. In the new game Fanni rolls the dice while Anna does not think twice, she knocks down all the pins. Together they raise their voice and shape one mutual tune. Differences attract each other, and jolly they move on – together on their distinct journeys, where their dreams are set – towards a new found liberty

International Premiere: Sundance Film Festival
Tiger Award 2013 (Rotterdam)
International sales: Premium Films


●  Katharina Mückstein: TALEA (La Banda Film)
Summertime. Everybody is excited to go on vacation to Italy. Everybody but Jasmin. She aches to be with her mother Eva who has just been released from jail on probation. Jasmin runs away from her foster home and convinces Eva to go on a trip. They get closer but when a man attracts Eva’s attention, the newly built mother-and-daughter-relationship threatens to fail.International Premiere: Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis (Saarbrücken)
Filmpreis der Saarländischen Ministerpräsidentin (Saarbrücken)

COMPETITION - Documentaries

●  Paul-Julien Robert: MEINE KEINE FAMILIE (FreibeuterFilm)
Communal property, free sexuality, dissolution of the nuclear family - these were the basic principles of the Friedrichshof, the largest commune in Europe founded by the Viennese Actionist Otto Mühl at the beginning of the 1970’s. In With(out) Family the director Paul-Julien Robert, who was born into this commune, embarks on a personal journey into his past. Including archive material made public for the first time in this film, the director confronts himself and his mother with the question “What is family?

International Premiere: Nyon (Wettbewerb Regard Neuf)
OmU-Preis beim DOK.fest München
International sales: filmdelights

●  Juri Rechinsky:  SICKFUCKPEOPLE (Novotny & Novotny Filmproduktion)
A documentary triptych about a group of homeless kids, who have survived their drug-addicted childhood, grew up and start to live an adult life. It’s a story about a boy facing the surreal, degenerated society of his native village full of hate and sadistic anger while searching for his mother. It’s a story about a pregnant girl who wants to give birth to her child whose childhood probably will be even worse then her. But her own sisters are forcing her to make an abortion.
Internationnale Premiere: Hot Docs Toronto (International Spectrum)

IN FOCUS

●  Ulrich Seidl: PARADISE: LOVE, PARADISE: FAITH,  PARADISE: HOPE (Ulrich Seidl Filmproduktion, Tatfilm (D), Parisienne de Production (F))
International sales: Coproduction office

●  Barbara Albert:  THE DEAD AND THE LIVING (coop99 filmproduktion, Alex Stern (PL), Komplizenfilm (D))
International sales: Films distribution