Gerhard Hannak

Ulrike Ottinger’s documentary Prater (Austria-Germany), a half-decade in the making, chronicles over the past century and more the attractions that contributed to the rise and fall of Prater, the world’s oldest amusement park.

Maximilian Schell's portrait of his sister Maria.

The seedy underbelly of Vienna at night. Mercedes is a femme fatale from Mexico, newly arrived at the Vienna airport with her German boyfriend Rainer, where they have smuggled a kilo of cocaine through customs. Unfortunately for them, the city has just had a major drug crackdown, leaving them without buyers and money. Disgusted with Rainer, Mercedes ditches him and hooks up with Harry, a lonely and bored cab driver who agrees to help her find a buyer for the drugs so she can get some cash and go home. She offers Harry a deal he can't refuse. Is he just another pawn for Mercedes or will her promises help him achieve his hope and dreams? The story careens through the night streets of Vienna, following two amateurs navigating their way through the treacherous world of the drug trade. It's a mood piece with the backdrop of a stifling urban loneliness.

It all begins with a mistake, an error with serious consequences: in a hospital the new-born babies of an Austrian couple and a Turkish family of immigrant workers are mixed up and go home with the wrong parents. By the time the mistake comes to light, it emerges that the Turkish family, including the baby, has been deported. The despairing Austrian couple begins a confusing odyssey through Turkey in order to track down the unsuspecting family to their native village. But they are not at all convinced that the babies have been mixed up. It is decided that the only way to know for sure is to have a blood test done. It is decided that the blood work is done in Vienna due to the better medical resources, but that will be far from simple. It will involve an illegal smuggling of the Turks across the Austrian border.

Paul and Bernd take over a small upscale antique store together. On one nightly excursion, Bernd introduces Paul and Lisa with each other. What was intended as a little variety to marriage-like everyday life develops into a great romance accompanied by a threat: If Eva hears about the affair, the financing for the shop will be in danger. Slowly but surely, Paul is ready to give up everything for Lisa: the shop, Eva and especially the loan. Bernd knows that Dragan is his only hope.

An unhappy young photographer is about to make his debut as a journalist. He is to write an obituary about the weapons-crazy mayor of a Lower Austrian village who, it is said, had a tank from WWII. In the course of his research he unearths a conspiracy of wifes murdering their husbands to get an early widowers pension.

Sophie "inherits" her uncle's preserved whale and finds out that whoever sleeps in the whale's belly with her will be granted one wish, causing chaos and hatred in the village.

Two men and a young woman who recently met spend a night together at a secluded mountain inn. It soon turns out that one of the two men could be a dangerous psychopath who is wanted by the police. The woman is torn between her emotions and what she should actually believe. A long night takes its course, at the end of which there will be no winner.