My Best Enemy is a feature film with an international scope, which draws heavily on mainstream US cinema. World War II and the Holocaust are recounted in Austria in an important film, in which, alongside the story of the two friends/enemies and the dramatic war, there is also a great homage to the art world and to beauty.
Divided into three episodes, Antares is a complex and layered fresco of contemporary society. Three stories, three different lifestyles, one setting. Antares does not only tell us about impossible loves, desperate loves, tormented loves and secret love affairs. Antares stages Love as utopia, a constant, desperate need for love that often also leads to a deep sense of loneliness.
In Looking for Oum Kulthum, Shirin Neshat loses herself in her reflections, focuses on the protagonist’s inner torments and almost forgets to give Oum Kulthum’s character the deserved attention. At the 74th Venice Film Festival – section Giornate degli Autori.
With In the Basement, Ulrich Seidl explores the inner self of the characters he filmed by entering their tidy, impeccable-looking homes, until he reaches their basements. And it is here that each of them finally reveals his or her true nature.
With a directorial approach that is as essential as possible – and with evident influences from the cinema of Michael Haneke – Markus Schleinzer – together with Kathrin Resetarits – has opted in Michael for a skilful minimal direction in staging the events of the two protagonists. A minimal direction made up of essential shots, fixed camera and very little dialogue. In competition at the Cannes Film Festival 2011.