Also Directed by Christian Berger
Hanna and Leo are expecting a child. They live near Innsbruck where the mountains touch the sky and where absolute bliss seems to reign. But things turn out quite differently.
Schumann at Pier2 is not a usual concert film, it shows the 4 Symphonies of Schumann from a new perspective. Stars of the film are the conductor Paavo Järvi and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and it´s filmed at „Pier2“, a former dockyard in the harbour of Bremen. Symphony No. 1, Spring, Op. 38 Symphony No. 2, Op. 61 Symphony No. 3 Rhenish, Op. 97 Symphony No. 4, Op. 120
On February 20th, 1810, French and Bavarian forces killed the Tyrolean rebel leader Andreas Hofer in Mantua, at that time a part of Austria. Hofer had led the Tyroleans in their fight for independence from Bavaria and was betrayed by an insignificant farmer, the betrayal and its effect on the farmer is the subject of this historically-based drama. Director Christian Berger has shot the story emphasizing visual poetics, as well as close-ups to reveal the nuances of subtle emotions as they play across the human face. Whatever the farmer Raffl's motivation -- he is clearly an underdog, overworked, with his labor unrecognized -- he receives no expected reward for his betrayal of Hofer's hiding place, and he has to quickly leave for the city to escape his fellow villagers' wrath. Once in the city and working hard in a factory, Raffl must come to grips with the fact that his identity has changed, and he may have betrayed himself as well as Hofer.
Georg works up at the highway. He collects the toll from the tourists; he collects the toll from the truck drivers. All of Europe has to go by him. Below, in the shadow of the mighty bridge, Georg lives with his parents in an old farmhouse with its empty stall. Georg makes a career for himself. And then, he falls in love with a young farm woman. He must decide between love and his job.
After the war in Croatia. Everyday life and the way things were during this civil war. A war which was started by the Others, a war no one wanted an which is not really over, although the fighting has stopped. The breakup of the former Yugoslavia and the birth of a new nation is the backdrop in front of which people live their lives.
"The Lord created the world and in it’s centre he set the Alpenland (alpine country), the paradise on earth." – The Tyrolean version of the history of creation begins roughly like that, in which Pirchner is entrusted with keeping the alpine Garden of Eden clean. If he isn’t up to the task, a deadly leap into a mountain lake awaits him… DER UNTERGANG DES ALPENLANDES is an Austrian short film and a satire on the „Heimatfilm“-genre films which has gained cult-status. The same is true of Pirchner’s music which plays an important role in the film.
Images and sounds of Anpass in Tyrol, shot between 1970 and 1973.
