PRESSEINFORMATION – 8 - DIAGONALE

PRESS INFORMATION 

Press talk, Café Promenade, Graz, 18th January 2007 

Content: 

� Opening film 07 

� Focus point: Film distribution/reception 

� Preview of DIAGONALE Specials 

� Styrian Premiere 

� DIAGONALE trailer 

� DIAGONALE locations 

� Disabled access 

DIAGONALE Opening Film 07 

We are pleased to announce the film opening this year’s DIAGONALE: 

42plus 

Austria, 2007, 95 mins 

Director: Sabine Derflinger 

Screenplay: Sabine Derflinger, Mogens Rukov 

Camera: Bernhard Pötscher 

Set: Nikolai Ritter 

Editor: Karina Ressler 

Costume: Monika Büttinger 

Sound: Heinz Ebner, Dietmar Zuson, Bernhard Maisch 

Music: Andy Baum 

Producer: Danny Krausz & Kurt Stocker 

Actors: Claudia Michelsen, Ulrich Tukur, Tobias Moretti, Petra Morzé, Vanessa Krüger etc. 

A Dor Film Production 

Produced in cooperation with the Austrian Film Institute, ORF, Film Fonds Wien, the province of Upper 

Austria and the Media Programme of the European Union. 

The DIAGONALE opening film tells the story of 42-year-old Christine. Holidaying in Italy with her 

husband Georg and daughter Sonja, Christine feels the need to reinvent herself. Her roles as a 

successful and hardworking TV editor, as the wife of an affable yet somewhat boring and inattentive 

man, the lover of her husband’s best friend and her main role as mother of an adolescent daughter 

fail to satisfy her any longer. They can’t be all life has to offer. Christine searches for something 

different, for herself. The young Tamaz represents not so much a solution, but the trigger for 

something greater… 

Sabine Derflinger will be present at the opening of the DIAGONALE 07 on 19th of March in the 

Helmut List Halle, Graz. Further information on 42plus can be found attached to this press release. 

DIAGONALE Forum österreichischer Film 

Büro Wien: Rauhensteingasse 5/5 * A - 1010 Wien * T +43-1-5954556 * F +43-1-5954556-10 * wien@diagonale.at 

Büro Graz: c/o Hotel Weitzer, Grieskai 12-16, A-8020 Graz * T +43 316 822 818 * F +43 316 822 817 * graz@diagonale.at 

www.diagonale.at * ZVR 397072279 * UID: ATU43538007 * Bankverbindung: BA-CA, BLZ. 12.000, Kto. 51260500301

As in her second film being shown at the DIAGONALE 07, the 30-minute-long documentary In den 

Straßen von Delhi (camera: Peter Röhsler) which follows street children looking after one another in a 

youth shelter, Sabine Derfinger positions herself close by her protagonists; she is on their side. It is an 

approach which also characterises 42plus. Derflinger observes her subjects from a certain distance, 

but at the same time she shows them respect, protects them, without making promises of change or 

assistance that cannot be kept. 

The script of 42plus was co-written by Mogens Rukov. Those who came across his contributions to 

last year’s festival will perhaps be more aware of his dramatic strategies: the constant disruptive 

factors, small honesties and outbreaks which alter not only the smooth surface of the narrative but 

the characters’ double lives and secrets. 

Focus Point: Film Distribution/Reception 

Following on from the areas of editing and production, the main focus at this year’s DIAGONALE 

will be placed on the subject of how film is diffused and received. Aside from our key question - 

“How does an Austrian film reach its audience?” - the event plans to both bring to light and discuss 

methods of distribution. Classic cinema, sales and distribution practices are increasingly having to face 

up to the new conditions presented by the digital world, including download platforms, mobile TV and 

video on demand. 

All this points towards new possibilities in the field of film reception, but it also signifies substantial 

changes for film makers, as films themselves will, in due course, have to develop. The result of this: 

mobile content. 

Joining us in discussing this controversial topic are experts from all areas of the industry: lawyers, 

producers, filmmakers, manufacturers of cellular products, funding organisations and providers. Our 

discussion of mobile content, the new legal situation, pirating, and the partnership between old and 

new practices of distribution and reception, will aim to find concrete examples for alternative viewing 

possibilities. 

Preview of DIAGONALE Specials 

Closely connected with the subjects of distribution/reception this year are the contributions of our 

long-standing partners, the Austrian Film Museum, Synema, and the Austrian Film Archive. 

Entitled “Stoffwechsel – Filme zeugen Filme”, the Austrian Film Museum will be showing a 

programme of unusual and current examples of film distribution and film archiving practices, 

accompanied by a lecture discussing the function of a film museum. What will differentiate a film 

museum in the near future from a digital footage library offering its users unlimited and easy access 

to images? 





Synema’s contribution to the DIAGONALE 07 is a programme of work by the cameraman, 

photographer and filmmaker Wolf Suschitzky, a great deal of which has, until now, not been 

exhibited in Austria. Suschitzky will also be present as our guest in Graz. The programme forms part 

of a research project into the areas of film and exile which Synema has been involved in for a number 

of years. 

The Austrian Film Archive will be showing three programmes featuring productions from the 

autodidactic Viennese filmmaker, author and critic Herbert Holba on the subject of 1960s Austrian 

avant-garde (curated by Olaf Möller). 

We have also invited the former DIAGONALE directors Christine Dollhofer and Constantin Wulff to 

each head a Special Programme: 

Christine Dollhofer has programmed four European feature and in this way the filmfestival Crossing 

Europe will be our guest in Graz. All of the featured films have been directed by women and attempt 

to reinterpret traditions of narration. 

Constantin Wulff will be showing powerful trend-setting documentary positions, including 

productions from former Diagonale special guests. 

A highlight of this year’s DIAGONALE comes in the form of our collaboration with Vienna 

Independent Shorts (VIS) and ORF’s long night of shorts and skirts. Preparations are 

currently underway to host these events simultaneously in several Austrian cities. 

The Sehstationen (a further collaboration with ORF) are being curated for the DIAGONALE 07 by 

Martin Traxl. 

The DIAGONALE 07 is emphasising the international context of the festival by combining forces with 

both the dokMA Festival Maribor and Vienna Independent Shorts (VIS), the latter compiling a 

programme with both international shorts and productions from Austria. 

Also contributing greatly to this international context are the seven foreign filmmakers shown in this 

year’s festival whose films were both initiated and produced by New Crowned Hope as part of the 

‘Year of Mozart’ celebrations. We are showing all seven of the films at the DIAGONALE 07 because 

their differing and often radical narrative positions will undoubtedly influence both production 

practices and the content of Austrian filmmaking. 

Styrian Premiere 

The DIAGONALE is holding the Austrian premiere of heile welt in Styria, the home of its director. 

heile welt 

Austria, 2007, approx. 90 mins 

Director/Screenplay/Camera: Jakob M. Erwa 

Sound: Odo Grötschnig, Britta Lang 

Editor: Wolfgang Weigl 

Producer: Novotny & Novotny Filmproduktion in cooperation with mojo:pictures GbR 

At last year’s DIAGONALE Jacob M. Erwa showed a short feature film (heile welt, 30 mins) which 

became one of three loosely connected episodes of this his first and highly ambitious long feature 





film. Knowing no boundaries, a youngster’s network of connections is further increased by 

entanglement with adults. Loneliness, unpredictable feelings and the search for happiness determine 

each phase of life. Narrative strands lead onwards or end dramatically. Escape and the chance at a 

fresh start become ever more complicated. 

DIAGONALE Trailer 

The only real retrospective at this year’s anniversary festival are the nine ‘old’ DIAGONALE trailers, 

which are also shown in an installation by Ivika Kivi in the Medienkunstlabor: 

06 Toast by Jessica Hausner 

05 die Wand by Brigitta Bödenauer, Didi Bruckmayr and Michael Strohmann 

04 die Antwort by Mara Mattuschka 

03 SIM MOVIE by Michael Palm 

02 Frontale by Siegfried A. Fruhauf 

01 isola farnese by Edgar Honetschläger 

00 Zweitausend by Fridolin Schönwiese 

99 screen opener fudge by Nana Swiczinsky 

98 Panorama by Lisl Ponger 

DIAGONALE Locations 

Our festival cinemas are the KIZ Kino im Augarten, the Filmzentrum im Rechbauerkino, the 

Schubertkino, the Geidorf Kunstkino and the UCI Kinowelt Annenhof. The last three have 

each placed 2 theatres at our disposal meaning we will be able for the first time to provide audiences 

with 5 cinemas and 8 theatres. 

The Festival Centre of the Kunsthaus Graz will accommodate both the press and guest office, as 

well as a lounge for journalists providing computer and internet access, as well as viewing 

possibilities. 

As in past years, all discussions of the festival’s main focal points will take place in Space 04 of the 

Festival Centre. 

Entitled The Colonial Dream, the programme of films from the Ovni Archiv Barcelona will be shown 

at Forum Stadtpark. We are planning both individual and audience screenings for these films 

DIAGONALE Awards 

At the award ceremony on 24 th March 2007 the DIAGONALE will again bestow prizes to the value of 

over € 120.000 on the winners. 





Disabled Access 

In order for all our visitors to be able to enjoy both our films and cinemas, we have been working 

since the spring of 2006 with different organisations on various projects to adapt city, province and 

country - and of course our cinemas - to the needs of disabled persons. This includes the addition of 

disabled toilets, access to cinemas for wheelchair users and the construction of lifts etc. 

The alterations do not represent a temporary project to be forgotten once the Diagonale is over, but 

an effort to insure long-term changes. 

Our policy of disabled access naturally also applies to all our event locations, such as the Helmut-List- 

Halle. 

It also means that we will increasingly endeavour to take our visitors with impaired vision or 

hearing into consideration. 

The DIAGONALE 07 marks our first steps in this direction. All films with subtitles will be clearly 

indicated in the catalogue and we are currently working on audio guide versions and subtitling. 

The chance to enjoy films without restrictions also formed the initiative for this year’s scheme of child 

supervision called “Cinema for Parents – Fun for You”, as well as our programme from last year 

DIAGONALE For Everyone which offers those unable to afford cinema tickets the chance to watch 

festival films. 

For further information or images, please contact the DIAGONALE press office: 

Tel: +43-1-595 45 56 Fax: +43-1-595 45 56-10: Daniela Ingruber (ext. 22) / 0664-834 2880, 

Andreas Körner (ext. 23) und Eva Pakisch (ext. 24) or email us at presse@diagonale.at.

PRESSEINFORMATION – 8 - DIAGONALE

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