Michael Etz

Best prospects for young Nika Kreschinski: She is an assistant in the PR department of the renowned Seckbach Bank and is engaged to Fritz , the son of the house. But shortly before the planned wedding , the orderly life of the career woman is thoroughly shaken up: her father Herby,an old hippie, appears on the scene because the Seckbach Bank wants to turn his Greek dropout island into an amusement park ...

Austrian television director Fritz Lehner makes his feature debut with the big-budget drama Jedermann's Fest, based on the 1911 play by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, which in turn was based on a medieval tale. Originated in parts of England, the myth of Jan Jedermann ("John Everyman") deals with a rich man on his deathbed coming to terms with his life's failures. Not following much of a plot, the modernized version involves famous fashion designer Jedermann (Klaus Maria Brandauer) imagining his last big gala event while rendered unconscious as a result of a car accident in his Ferrari. He is a success in Vienna but not in fashionable Paris, so he wishes to impress French elder stateswoman Yvonne Becker (Juliette Greco).

Dölken, Ivo and Sichel, three amiable and harmless inmates of a mental asylum are off to spend the summer in an open institution in the country. The trip they have been looking forward to for so long ends abruptly when the driver of their bus suffers a heart attack. The three men quite naturally assume that they have reached their destination and find somewhere to stay in the nearest village.

Set within a Viennese apartment block, this affectionate Austrian comedy makes fun of the strange habits of the famed city's residents. The building is located in a middle-class area and has residents from many age groups and walks of life. Many of the tenants are much older, but there are also a few children about. In one apartment lives a large group of Polish construction workers, while a Yugoslavian woman and her huge family attempt to survive in their tiny flat. The episodic story of the lives of these and other tenants is framed by a visit from a civil servant from the Office of Statistics.

In this highly symbolic political allegory, Averill is traveling through a troubled countryside amid rumors of war to visit his father. He reaches a train station in a city which is paralyzed by a transportation strike and is forced to take lodgings in a bizarre, unattractive town populated by seemingly malformed individuals. After a while, he begins to try to woo a much older woman, and symbolic images of entrapment, imprisonment and erotic enticement mark his adventures in this regard.

Orhan, who is ten years old, comes to Vienna from a small Village in Anatolia. Armed with his grandfather's revolver, he intends to avenge his father, who was a "guest worker" and was killed in a car accident. On his quest for "vengeance", Orhan meets friends and enemies and finds himself in a totally strange world. Finally he realizes the absurdity of his plan and returns to his village.

Are you happy? You don't have to answer right away. There is an island in the Mediterranean where the question concerning happiness is taken very seriously. A man comes and is drawn into a confusing game. A child an a mysterious woman play an important role in the game. He is mistaken for someone else and gradually sees the possibility of leaving his former life behind and finding happiness on the island. Is this only an illusion which should be rejected?

Eva, a successful publicity executive, has weight problems. In spite of diets and starvation cures she is overcome frequently by attacks of compulsive eating so that all resolutions and efforts to reduce weight are of no avail. She becomes more and more frustrated. Her new boyfriend Thomas does his best to pep her up but it doesn't help her self esteem. Finally, after she ditches her date with Thomas because she can't find the right dress to wear, she flies into a rage and -in an act of self-liberation- throws her clothes and scale through a closed window.

Viktor and Angelika are a straight couple. He is a professor of veterinary science and she has studied art history. Both are more interested in their hobbies and professions than in each other; also, Viktor isn't terribly interested in satisfying his wife anymore. Their upright relationship changes dramatically when Viktor gets to know Lotte, a former school friend of Angelika's. Back in school, Lotte would have done anything for Angelika.

In this well-photographed and sometimes confusing wartime drama, an Austrian village experiences the tragedy of war on several different levels. Within one family, the younger son is jealous of the praise his father gives to a Polish POW who is working for them under very difficult conditions. Within the village as a whole, the French, Polish, and Russian POWs are kept under guard by Nazi soldiers, creating a tense situation all around. But more importantly, the village has conspired to hide an Austrian deserter in a cave up in the mountains. This act of rebellion on the part of the deserter and the village hangs in a precarious balance that could be upset by a single traitorous comment to the Gestapo.

Within the span of 48 hours "contemporaries" encounter each other. In the middle is Max, who lost his job years ago because of his affair with the wife of an influential man. The story of an encounter which turns out badly because the people involved can't quite communicate.

Franz Holl, 6 years old, is sent off by his mother and stepfather to live on his father's farm. His father turns out to be a mischievous man who won't grant him any chance in life. The roles are played by amateur actors from Carinthia.

A misunderstood youth is incorrectly placed in a mental hospital.