Walter Ludwig

Therese lives in two worlds. As housemaid she has fallen in love with the sophisticated Countess Meta von W. As a young woman of poor/humble descent, she has to watch as her sister Magdalena is being hauled into the abyss by a devilish sectarian. Together with this notorious pastor, Thomas Pöschl, Magdalena conducts exorcisms at her community/in the village. Small children have to renounce Satan, a young woman is brutally exorcized and later proclaimed a saint by Pöschl.

Stealing Klimt recounts the struggle by 90-year-old Maria Altmann to recover five Gustav Klimt paintings stolen from her family by the Nazis in Vienna. From the end of the War up until last year, these paintings hung in the Austrian National Gallery. The film covers Maria's early life in glittering fin-de-siècle Vienna, her dramatic escape from Nazi terror and her courageous fight to recover the five Klimt's against all the odds. Maria's fight to reclaim the paintings eventually took her to the United States Supreme Court and pitted her not just against Austria but also against the US Government which asked the Supreme Court to reject her case. After Maria finally emerged victorious in 2006, one of the paintings - the "Golden Portrait" of Maria's aunt, Adele Bloch Bauer - was sold to cosmetics tycoon Ronald Lauder for $135m, becoming the world's most expensive painting ever sold. The other four paintings were recently auctioned at Christie's for record prices.

Grocery store clerk Simon occasionally sells drugs from his cash register at work, so when soap opera actors Adam and Zack come looking for Ecstasy on a quiet Christmas Eve, they are surprised to find Ronna covering his shift. Desperate for money, Ronna decides to become an impromptu drug dealer, unaware that Adam and Zack are secretly working for obsessed narcotics officer Burke.

Grocery store clerk Simon occasionally sells drugs from his cash register at work, so when soap opera actors Adam and Zack come looking for Ecstasy on a quiet Christmas Eve, they are surprised to find Ronna covering his shift. Desperate for money, Ronna decides to become an impromptu drug dealer, unaware that Adam and Zack are secretly working for obsessed narcotics officer Burke.

1905: Syphilis and prostitution flourish in a small town somewhere in the Danube monarchy. In the midst of the night stands Marie, a young prostitute, who has learned how to live in this shady environment. Marie's encounters with johns have many faces; notorious bon vivants, an old man who brings cake from his wife, and Count Albin, a lofty gentleman whose behavior is very strange. Before Marie sleeps with him, she must tie a blue band with white dots around her thigh. The next day she encounters the Count shopping with his twelve year old daughter, Anna. It's apparent that Anna who wears a blue band with white dots in her hair is afraid of her father. Marie is deeply touched by Anna's emotional state which provokes her curiosity about the child. As she investigates Anna's situation Marie's humanity is revealed. It's ironic that a girl, Anna, of noble origins finds a motherly role model in Marie the prostitute.