Die Nachtmeerfahrt

Vignettes of the lives of several residents of a Vienna suburb during a heat wave.

After the passing of her husband, the commissioned painter Anneliese Psiko decides to travel across the country. In the Austrian province of Styria, she discovers a strange work of art entitled "Weltmaschine" (World Machine). From now on, it will change her life significantly.

Tommi Fischer, a newly divorced copywriter is looking for a replacement mother for his son. When he falls for the emancipated costume designer Evelyn he soon finds himself in the undesired role of a stay-at-home dad.

Kindra, an attractive 21 year old politics student in Vienna, has taken on the spying activities of her parents who have disappeared. Kindra steals UN secrets and sells them anonymously over the internet. Her buyer, Hal, is suspicious that his usual source has been replaced by an imposter and when Kindra persuades Hal to pay her in advance for information that she does not possess, the deception triggers an all out hunt, and it's only a matter of time before Hal and his organisation get to her - unless the other side get to her first.

A man and a woman meet. In the confusion of their short encounter they fail to give their names and exchange addresses. They go back to living their lives without the prospect of seeing each other again. From then on, the dream of true love interrupts the sober routine of their daily lives. Their longing for love increases and draws them back to the place where they met - and they barely miss noticing each other there. In the turmoil of the city in which they live there are moments when they just fail to run into each other by chance. Their short meeting has transformed their lives as well as their dreams. Perhaps they will find true love when they least expect to find it.

The delightful light operatic farce by Johann Strauss is presented at the Morbisch Lake Festival (Seefestspiele Mörbisch) starring Herbert Lippert, Richard Samek, Heinz Zednik and Dagmar Schellenberger.

Beautiful, detached, laconic, consumptive Lily Brest is a streetwalker with few clients. She loves her idle boyfriend, Raoul, who gambles away what little she earns. The town's power broker, called the rich Jew, discovers she is a good listener, so she's soon busy. Raoul imagines grotesque sex scenes between Lily and the Jew; he leaves her for a man. Her parents, a bitter Fascist who is a cabaret singer in drag and her wheelchair-bound mother, offer no refuge. Even though all have a philosophical bent, the other whores reject Lily because she tolerates everyone, including men. She tires of her lonely life and looks for a way out. Even that act serves the local corrupt powers.

An ill-tempered middle-management mafioso is set on delivering a suitcase full of money. Little does he know that taking an ontologically challenged self-driving taxi puts them on a collision course with fate-and a badly dressed pirate.

Kain, a young rock musician, is on his way from an "insider tip" to an acknowledged newcomer. Even though he often has to work at night, he leads a more or less settled life until he meets Nina. Nina, who is blind from birth, works as a switchboard operator at the post office. Her life as well is settled, and more so than for Kain the order in her life is a system of security for her. They fall in love and as time passes Nina gets much more involved in Kain's life as a musician than she wanted to.

In 1938, a young woman leaves Germany to search for her love, Erich, in Reichenburg, Bohemia. Erich is secretly fighting the fascists, so Hilde ends up becoming a housemaid in the home of a German joiner in order to carry on their relationship. The joiner's son notices the passionate love shared between Hilde and Erich. To him, the young lady embodies the feminine ideal. When Hilde receives news of Erich's death, she descends into an uninhibited lifestyle in an attempt to forget.

Gustl Bayrhammer takes audiences big and small on a musical journey to “Wonderland”. There he meets various characters from comic books, fairy tales and legends.

Judit is up to her neck in art studies and the elitist art community but chucks it all to pursue a successful career as a billiard professional -- not exactly a likely alternative in real life, but certainly more lucrative. Just as she is finally at the apex of her chosen second field, Judit encounters male jealously and/or aggression in the form of intentional snubs from this different class of snobs, or in the worse instances, rape. Director Kitty Kino portrays many of the male figures in this film as weak, or drunk, or simply offensive, and because of the emphasis on those traits, the film will raise objections from some viewers. On the other hand, many women might see this film and feel that at least it brings up the difficulties women can face in getting ahead in a male-dominated arena, instead of side-stepping or ignoring the role of male prejudice.