“These are memorable times. A new war is raging – yet another one,” festival co-director Dominik Kamalzadeh stated as he presented this year’s Diagonale in Graz. The film festival, taking place from 18-23 March, will screen 149 films, including 77 Austrian or world premieres. The gathering will open with Markus Schleinzer’s highly acclaimed drama Rose [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film], starring Sandra Hüller, which had its world premiere at the Berlinale. Meanwhile, actress Hilde Dalik will receive the “Grand Diagonale Acting Award”.

Not only is the war between Iran, Israel and the USA overshadowing the festival, as Kalmazadeh stated, but cinematographer Faraz Fesharaki, who was meant to be on the jury, and director Massoud Bakhshi are unable to leave Iran to attend. Furthermore, festival co-directors Kalmazadeh and Claudia Slanar also addressed the recent debate about Berlinale head Tricia Tuttle: “Festivals are public spaces for debate – even uncomfortable ones.”

Highlights from the feature-film programme include the world premiere of AMS – Arbeit muss sein by Sebastian Brauneis, “a highly comical film about a group of unemployed people rebelling against bureaucracy”, and The Stories [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Abu Bakr Shawky
scheda film] by Abu Bakr Shawky, a classic culture-clash comedy set in Vienna and Cairo, complete with a subversion of stereotypes, which premiered at Tallinn Black Nights.

The documentary competition is made up almost exclusively of Austrian and world premieres. A Russian Winter [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] by Patric Chiha deals with the Russian diaspora. Similarly, the short documentary Knife in the Heart of Europe by Artem Terentev deals with young people in Kaliningrad. Centring on Austrian topics, Wahlkampf, meaning “election campaign”, by Harald Friedl accompanies the team of Social Democrat candidate Andreas Babler.

Besides the political, there is also the topic of healthcare. As Slanar stated, there is a significant focus on documentaries about care work this year – for example, Mein halber Vater by Viki Kühn, in which a mother and daughter deal with the task of caring for a father who has suffered a stroke. Amongst the 14 movies in the short-film competition, there is Ein Unfall by Angelika Spangel, which already screened at the Berlinale.

Outside the movie theatre, the Diagonale once again intertwines its activities with the day-to-day business of the city. The shop-window competition will again see Graz’s city-centre stores shine in Diagonale style, whilst this year’s trailer director, Michael Gülzow, is presenting his exhibition Das Tor zur Unwirklichkeit, or “The Gate to Unreality”, at the Kunsthaus Graz, inviting visitors to travel through time and traverse different realities. The festival also returns with the short film walk to the Lendviertel, where cinema screens are set up in courtyards and movies are projected onto the walls of buildings.

This year’s film-history specials are “Girls Will Be Boys”, about cross-dressing women, and “Neue Unsicherheiten”, or “New Insecurities”, about Austrian documentaries from the 1990s. The retrospectives are dedicated to Austrian artist Billy Roisz and Icelandic filmmaker Hlynur Pálmason. Finally, with “Und in der Mitte”, or “And in the Middle”, the festival is also introducing a new, annual programme dedicated to discussions and films that explore spaces beyond urban centres.