She dolls with Dollies (2024) by Karin Fisslthaler - Review

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by Karin Fisslthaler

grade: 7.5

In She dolls with Dollies, flowers gradually begin to occupy an increasingly large space, until they become the protagonists on the movie screen. And with their bright colours, they have the power to make the personal universal, shouting at the top of their voices about the rights, identity, and essential, fundamental importance of every human being. At the film review CinemAUSTRIA 2025/2026.

In a world full of dolls…

In the world we live in, as we know, human beings are often considered objects, almost devoid of will and dignity, ready to adapt to any context required by society. But how can the art world rebel against this system, loudly asserting human rights? Particularly noteworthy in this regard is the poem Sie puppt mit Puppen, written in 1944 by Kurt Schwitters, which focuses specifically on a female figure. And what better medium than cinema to give this poem a new and innovative form through a successful combination of words, music and images? In 2024, director Karin Fisslthaler, in collaboration with musicians Anna Clementi and Thomas Stern, thus made the experimental short film She dolls with Dollies, presented in Italy at the CinemAUSTRIA 2025/2026 film review, in collaboration with the Tricky Women/Tricky Realities Film Festival in Vienna.

She dolls with Dollies, therefore, is a whirlwind of words, images and colours which, in just three minutes, manages to draw a complete portrait of 1970s pop culture through an innovative staging. Countless images (all strictly in black and white) follow one after the other on the movie screen, thanks to increasingly frenetic editing. Images printed on magazine covers, images showing us faces from glorious Hollywood (such as Marilyn Monroe, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Carole Lombard), but also images that bear witness to serious news events or simply everyday life at the time. Yet, as we will soon see, these images all have a specific peculiarity.

The truly unique feature of She dolls with Dollies is actually the fact that Karin Fisslthaler has removed every face from the images in order to replace them with colourful floral images. And so, immediately, the entire short film takes on precious and meaningful universal connotations, conveying a very specific message. What role do human beings play in the society in which we live? How do certain dynamics from the past continue to occur today?

In She dolls with Dollies, flowers gradually begin to occupy an increasingly large space, until they become the protagonists on the movie screen. And with their bright colours, they have the power to make the personal universal, shouting at the top of their voices (thanks also to the immortal words of Schwitters and, of course, the music of Clementi and Stern) the rights, identity, essential and fundamental importance of every human being. Themes that, in a world increasingly oriented towards the artificial, are becoming even more relevant and urgent today.