Florentín Groll

The Hungarian Dressmaker

Ema & Death’s-Head deals with the precarious border between humanism and the protection of one’s own life in situations when one excludes the other. Marika Sándorfi is hiding a Jewish boy during the dramatic era of the First Slovak State on the Slovak-Hungarian border. Šimon Holan, the boy in hiding, has a special ability to survive thanks to dreaming and a child’s fantasy.

Amnesia

A young composer moves from Berlin to the island of Ibiza and begins a friendship with an elderly woman whose painful past has caused her to reject everything to do with Germany, including her native language.

Kafka Ganja Maniacs

Five university students are required to write a paper on a Kafka short story. In a smoke cloud of inspiration, they take a road trip to film it instead.

The Decent One

Through previously undiscovered private letters, photos and diaries that were found in the Himmler family house in 1945, the "The Decent One" exposes a unique and at times uncomfortable access to the life and mind of the merciless "Architect of the Final Solution" Heinrich Himmler.

Shirley: Visions of Reality

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.

Breathing Out

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....

Sisi... und ich erzähle euch die Wahrheit

September 11, 1898: The imperial family’s personal physician, Dr. Herman Widerhofer, is deeply shocked by the news that an anarchist has assassinated Empress Elisabeth in Geneva. He then shuts himself up in his private rooms and recalls the empress’ fateful life. We learn the truth about Elisabeth, as the doctor knew more about her than anyone else.

Das Mädchen auf dem Meeresgrund

When Hans Hass seeks a secretary for his Viennese office in the summer of 1947, Lotte Baierl applies for the job. She has just graduated from high school and is a big fan of Hass. Lotte is learning how to handle diving equipment and underwater cameras, as she wants to participate in the next expedition. Hass, who is initially against the participation of a woman, changes his mind. The TV movie tells the story of the two diving pioneers.

Klimt

A portrait of Austrian artist Gustav Klimt whose lavish, sexual paintings came to symbolize the art nouveau style of the late 19th and early 20th century.

The Red Violin

300 years of a remarkable musical instrument. Crafted by the Italian master Bussotti (Cecchi) in 1681, the red violin has traveled through Austria, England, China, and Canada, leaving both beauty and tragedy in its wake. In Montreal, Samuel L Jackson plays an appraiser going over its complex history.

Es war doch Liebe

Jan, a freelance journalist, and Sabine, the mother of his two children and a textile designer, have no money. Sabine is abandoned by her husband and then gets caught up in the bureaucracy. A sober psychogram of a woman who is fighting and hoping for her life and everyday life.

Ein Anfang von etwas

Herbert lives a rather simple life, left to his own devices. He works as a projectionist in a shabby Viennese movie theater and lives alone with his red nameless cat in the free caretaker's apartment of a somewhat run-down apartment building. Now and then he visits his mother in a nursing home, meets with an old friend of his father, or comes to meetings of a savings club. Saving money is pretty much the center of his life because he has a dream. He wants to emigrate to the U.S. to buy his own movie theater and to reunite with his long-lost father. But when Rita, a young student, moves into the apartment building things in his life are changed completely.

Jonathana und die Hexe

A seven-year-old girl living in Salzburg with her father makes friends with an old witch.

Karambolage

Judit is up to her neck in art studies and the elitist art community but chucks it all to pursue a successful career as a billiard professional -- not exactly a likely alternative in real life, but certainly more lucrative. Just as she is finally at the apex of her chosen second field, Judit encounters male jealously and/or aggression in the form of intentional snubs from this different class of snobs, or in the worse instances, rape. Director Kitty Kino portrays many of the male figures in this film as weak, or drunk, or simply offensive, and because of the emphasis on those traits, the film will raise objections from some viewers. On the other hand, many women might see this film and feel that at least it brings up the difficulties women can face in getting ahead in a male-dominated arena, instead of side-stepping or ignoring the role of male prejudice.

Kieselsteine

Vienna in the eighties. An accidental meeting in a restaurant. She, Hannah, is Jewish and has a live-in lover, a young and successful architect. He, Friedrich, is a German and lives permanently in Vienna. Two worlds collide with another, begin to become entangled in each other. Friedrich too, has his problems. He is a "German", which fascinates and repels Hannah at the same time. She tries to get over her confusion by being ironic and flirtatious. Simultaneously, what she has tried to suppress breaks through in flashbacks...