16/10/2006

The 44th Vienna Film Festival (October 13-25), which opened Friday with The Queen [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andy Harries
interview: Stephen Frears
film profile] by Stephen Frears, is fulfilling its role as a privileged platform for Austrian cinema with something to say.

One of the titles screening today – for which tickets have already been sold out – is I Want to Tell You Something (Ich muss dir was sagen), written and directed by Martin Nguyen and produced by Vienna-based outfit Mischief Films (screening at the Stadtkino , in the presence of the director).

The feature describes a year in the childhood of four year-old twins, one of whom is deaf, who live in a typical suburban home with a garden in Vienna. The emphasis is on the very specific type of learning process deaf people undergo.

International sales are being handled by Autlook Filmsales. I Want to Tell You Something has good company in Egypt (1997) – a short by the actress-director (and producer) Kathrin Resetarits, 2006 Austrian Shooting Star at Berlin (see interview) – a film that focused on sign language and the special relationship between the signifier and the signified that characterises it.

Among the films of the day are a few other European titles that have already packed their theatres: The Session is Open by Italy’s Vincenzo Marra; the award-winning Longing by Germany’s Valeska Grisebach; Home by Patric Chiha, co-produced by Aurora Films (France) and WILDart FILM (Austria); and Carnets d'un combattant kurde (lit. “Diaries of a Kurdish Fighter”), French/Italian documentary by Stefano Savona.

Bénédicte Prot

(Translated from French)