22/01/2009

Watch the video interviews from the Trieste Film Festival

Making its Italian premiere at the Trieste Film Festival, Marko Doringer’s documentary (Half) the Time of My Life begins on the red carpet of the Berlinale. The opening POV shot, however, is interrupted when someone tells him to turn off the video camera because “only professionals are allowed to film there”.

The episode – which may or may not be true – illustrates the mood of the director, who just turned 30 and is going through a profound personal crisis. “I don’t have a steady job, a degree or a family…just a life insurance policy, but my father even pays for that,” he admits in the film.

An Austrian transplanted to Berlin, with two medium-length films under his belt (Voices Off - Beirut and Tirana and Elsewhere), Doringer feels he’s reached a turning point in his life. Thus, he decides to go home in search of his childhood friends: one is a sports journalist who wants to do something else in life; another the head of a multi-national corporation who feels he is neglecting his own needs; and yet another a successful fashion designer who does yet feel fulfilled.

And then there are the expectations of his family, first and foremost of his father, who wants to see him graduate from university and find a steady job.

“I wondered whether the anxiety I felt was mine alone, or whether many of my peers share similar stories,” said Doringer, who for a while slumped into a depression that left him glued to the couch. Judging by audiences’ reception (the film was released in Austria on January 1 by Polyfilm), many identify with this ironic self-portrait.

Said Doringer (who, as is fitting for an intimate diary often shot in POV, also produced, shot and edited the film): “The majority of viewers are 30-year-olds, who then suggest it to their parents”.

Produced by Filmfabrik Marko Doringer Filmproduktion with Nikolaus Geyrhalter Filmproduktion, (Half) the Time of My Life is sold internationally by Cinephil.

(Translated from Italian)