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by Clara Stern and Johannes Hoss
grade: 7
Break into your House is a film about bodies and spaces, but also about personal identity, which can only manifest itself in all its power without fear and with verve and liveliness. At the Vienna Shorts 2025.
Against all the rules
An elegant villa that deserves to be visited and studied. But can a simple guided tour really convey the essence of what this building is and has been? Is it possible to enjoy a complete experience, capture the essence of a place and finally make it your own, simply by following a tour guide? In the video clip Break into your House, directed by Clara Stern and Johannes Hoss in 2024 for Ikan Hyu and Drahthaus and presented at the Vienna Shorts 2025, we are shown a unique situation that occurred during a guided tour of a luxurious villa.
On a hot summer day, a group of tourists follows a guide who is about to tell them the history of the building. So far, nothing unusual. Then, unexpectedly, something unusual happens: a young woman in the group (played by Naemi Latzer, who also developed the choreography) starts singing the song Break into your House, looking initially towards the camera, and enters the villa, moving away from the people who were with her, and immediately starting a liberating dance that quickly takes on highly symbolic connotations.
Yes, because, in fact, what Clara Stern and Johannes Hoss wanted to stage in their interesting Break into your House is first and foremost a powerful act of resistance. The protagonist of the video clip goes against all the rules, is not afraid to let herself go, to express herself, to make her voice heard, distancing herself both physically and in attitude from the other people she was with previously.
Therefore, it could be said that Break into your House is, in fact, a film about bodies and spaces, but also about personal identity, which can only manifest itself in all its power without fear and with verve and liveliness. The liberating yet highly playful mood of the entire work proved to be the winning solution for staging all this.
What is particularly interesting in Break into your House is the great mastery of the medium cinema shown by Clara Stern and Johannes Hoss through their skilful use of space, fluid camera movements and, last but not least, the choice to make the protagonist look directly at the camera, thus making the viewer feel almost personally involved. And so, in just over three minutes, the message of Break into your House comes across loud and clear. And if we add to this, of course, a song with an engaging rhythm, we find ourselves in front of a little, sophisticated work that gives us, even if only for a short time, a welcome and necessary burst of energy.
Original title: Break into your House
Directed by: Clara Stern, Johannes Hoss
Country/year: Austria / 2024
Running time: 3’
Genre: musical
Cast: Naemi Latzer, Christoph Rainer, Rosa Friedrich, Lauli Grassenberger, Ingrid Kapsch, Lisi Lang, Valentin Martins, Raymond Nevo, Simon Öggl, Ylie Paguwlayan, Eric Smit, Aurelia Staub
Screenplay: Johannes Hoss, Naemi Latzer
Cinematography: Johannes Hoss
Produced by: Simon Öggl, Valentin Martins