Hundstage
Ulrich Seidl / AT, 2001 / 120 min.
A heatwave and alcohol shatter the façade of middle-class propriety for six residents of a Viennese suburb: hatred, violence and raw emotion channel their way to the surface. In his debut feature, Ulrich Seidl sketches an oppressive portrait of lost souls.
These are the hottest days of the year (the ‘dog days’ of July and August); the temperature is hitting highs above 35º Celsius, and tempers are starting to fray. Six residents of a suburb of Vienna are struggling to cope. Six lonely lives play out among the motorways, car parks and new-build housing estates.
Interplay of truth and fiction
In his films, director Ulrich Seidl makes use of an inventive interplay of truth and fiction. In his documentaries, he gets people to re-enact events that really happened, interweaving this with purely documentary footage. And vice versa: in his first feature film, the director strove for authenticity. Most of the actors are non-professionals, who carry out the same activities in real life as in the film.
Pre-film
In selected screenings, you will see the short film Brothers, Let Us Be Merry (Ulrich Seidl, 2006, 1' ), made as part of the 2006 Mozart Year. "Two men pleasure themselves to the slaves' aria from Mozart's Zaide in the way you pleasure yourself when you are supposed to get in the mood and have fun on command." – Ulrich Seidl
This is part of
Special screenings
Details
Director
Ulrich Seidl
Production year
2001
Country
AT
Original title
Hundstage
Length
120 min.
Language
German
Subtitles
NLD or ENG
Format
35mm
Part of
Ulrich Seidl
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people who try to, in their own ways, make something of life in a late-capitalist society in which meaning has been replaced by consumerism.
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