Günter Tolar

Four countries, four men - and four encounters that will call into question everything about themselves they thought they were sure of. Just when you thought things couldn't get any more complicated, along comes a boy to add a fresh perspective. The 4 short films are: Billy Boy (2021); Summer [Verano] (2022); Fabiu (2023); Czechoslovakia [Checoslovaquia] (2022).

In Austria in 1986, the year of the Waldheim election, artist Albin, a self-confessed naturalist, fights to win back his girlfriend Ida, a medical student who has just left him. Standing in his way is Ida’s authoritarian father Dr. Hampapa, who likes to shoot—not only—rabbits. But then on top of it all, a supposed naturalist commits suicide and everything becomes more and more absurd. A funny yet serious psycho-thriller that discovers the authentic in the crazy and vice versa.

Helene (86) and Toni (70) are completely different. One is planned and well-timed, the other impulsive and spontaneous. As an unlikely team, they embark on a journey to Switzerland for euthanasia. But their road trip through the mountains turns out differently than planned.

80-year-old retiree Arthur lives in a modest council home in Vienna. For quite some time he has lovingly been caring for his seriously ill wife Martha, with only female nurses assisting him. As he finds Fabiu, the new male Hungarian care worker, on his doorstep, his routine is broken. But soon the two men become closer and inside Arthur feelings of desire and suppressed longing start to rise.

During a joint operation by Czech and Austrian police officers against an illegal rave party in the border forest, young Austrian policewoman Johanna tragically dies and a Czech drug dealer named Sicilian disappears mysteriously. A rookie cop refuses to let the killer of his colleague go unpunished.

Delving deep into the soul of one of Austria’s most infamous real-life convicts, Jack is a fascinating, unprejudiced look at the path to redemption and the obstacles that bar the way.

In April 1945, as Jewish prisoners on a death march from Hungary reach an abandoned barn near an Austrian village, their SS guards vanish, leaving them starving, freezing and helpless while villagers remain divided over their fate. Desperate for food and hope, a former Budapest opera singer among them devises a plan: with fellow inmates and willing villagers, they stage Johann Strauss’s “Wiener Blut” in the barn to earn the means to survive.

The Sackbauer family unexpectedly inherits a villa with a large garden in a cottage district in Lower Austria. The villa itself is in acceptable condition, but the garden is less so. Mundl quickly sets about sprucing it up with garden gnomes, lanterns, and lots of love.

Vienna in 2021. Europe is divided into American sectors. The currency is being converted from the euro to the dollar. Johnny Bush (the son of American peacekeeper George Bush) is the Chancellor of Austria. English becomes the primary language; dialects are forbidden. The Viennese meet underground (with the dinosaurs) to practice their Viennese dialect. The German journalist August Maria Kaiser comes to Vienna to research a report on the missing Jörg Haider. Haider had ruled Austria for the past 20 years and was expelled by the Americans. On his journey to uncover the truth about Haider, Kaiser meets many acquaintances.