MFDB

Storyline

The film opens with Philipp, a successful young actor in Hamburg where is appearing in a performance of Woyzcek, bemused and surprised when elderly Walter arrives on his doorstep, telling him that his is his father’s step-brother.

Walter tells Philipp about his life working in the circus as a bear wrestler and knife thrower, while Philipp is full of his busy acting career. The two slowly get to know each other, with Walter helping in Philipp’s script reciting while also wandering the city.

Walter follows Philipp to Vienna and ends up living in his flat and – in an odd sideways move – helping out babysitting the two young children of Victor, whose wife is in Moldavia and cannot re-enter Austria.

The relationship between Walter and Philipp veers between father-and-son and bickering friends, but while it is intriguing to see the two men grow to get to know each other the film eventually drifts off to a non-ending as Walter engages in a plan to head off to Moldavia to smuggle Victor’s wife back into the country.

Festivals & Academy awards and others

Thessaloniki Film Festival 2012
Gijon International Film Festival 2018
Tizza Covi / Rainer Frimmel