Ulrich Seidl

Über das Leben, die Liebe und den Tod

19 September 2026 — 31 January 2027

still from Paradies: Liebe (Ulrich Seidl, AT/DE/FR 2012)

still Paradies: Liebe (Ulrich Seidl, AT/DE/FR 2012) © Ulrich Seidl Filmproduktion

In the exhibition Über das Leben, die Liebe und den Tod (On Life, Love and Death), Seidl’s ongoing exploration of the human condition takes centre stage. He has an interest in the everyday and, in particular, those who fall outside the bounds of daily order. Seidl’s work is often described as unsettling because it confronts viewers with their own preconceptions about how people live, what they think, how they furnish their homes, how they entertain themselves, and how they seek a sense of security, each in their own way.

Eye Filmmuseum presents Ulrich Seidl – Über das Leben, die Liebe und den Tod, the first exhibition – and the first complete film overview – of the renowned Austrian filmmaker in the Netherlands. Featuring a wealth of early, little-known and newly commissioned (film) works, the exhibition confronts visitors with the lives of a number of seemingly ordinary individuals, people who try to, in their own ways, make something of life in a late-capitalist society in which meaning has been replaced by consumerism.

still from Im Keller (Ulrich Seidl, AT 2014)

still Im Keller (Ulrich Seidl, AT 2014) © Ulrich Seidl Filmproduktion

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Explicit content: Viewer discretion is advised for this exhibition

What I try to do is to look behind the beautified surface and to go into a private space, and that’s often uncomfortable and may look different than what people would like it to look like.

Ulrich Seidl

Watch the exhibition trailer:

still Im Keller (Ulrich Seidl, AT 2014) © Ulrich Seidl Filmproduktion

At the intersection of documentary and fiction

Another way in which Seidl achieves a degree of disorientation is by positioning his work at the intersection of documentary and fiction. Research into real people, places and situations forms the basis of his work, which he then interweaves with fictional elements and characters. Non-professional actors play themselves in their own environments, while professional actors are invited to enter this context and improvise.

still from Rimini (Ulrich Seidl, AT 2022)

still Rimini (Ulrich Seidl, AT 2022) © Ulrich Seidl Filmproduktion

still from Mit Verlust ist zu rechnen (Losses to Be Expected) (Ulrich Seidl, AT 1992)

still Mit Verlust ist zu rechnen (Losses to Be Expected) (Ulrich Seidl, AT 1992) © Ulrich Seidl Filmproduktion

poster Ulrich Seidl – Über das Leben, die Liebe und den Tod

Film, Talks & Events

The exhibition includes screenings of all films from Ulrich Seidl’s filmography, with several 35mm prints drawn from the Eye collection. This marks a first: never before has a complete retrospective of the Austrian filmmaker’s work been presented in the Netherlands. A series of Eye on Art specials will delve deeper into themes within Seidl’s work and explore how his oeuvre resonates in the work of other contemporary filmmakers.

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On Eye Film Player, you can watch Ulrich Seidl's Paradies-trilogy and Safari at home.

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About Ulrich Seidl

Ulrich Seidl (Vienna, 1952) has directed around twenty fiction films and documentaries. In the 1990s, he won awards for his documentaries Good News (1990), Mit Verlust ist zu rechnen (Losses to Be Expected, 1992), Tierische Liebe (Animal Love, 1995) and Models (1998). In 2001, his first ‘fiction film’, Hundstage (Dog Days), received the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival. Almost all of his subsequent films premiered at major film festivals, including Import Export (2007) and Paradise: Liebe (Paradies: Love, 2012) in Cannes. His most recent work, the two-part Böse Spiele – Rimini Sparta (Wicked Games – Rimini Sparta, 2023), was screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.