The Trouble With Being Born

Österreich Deutschland 2019/2020 Spielfilm

Summary

Somewhere in Central Europe, perhaps in the vicinity of Vienna, in the near future. Ten-year-old Elli is an android, as we soon learn. She takes shape through programming and this turns her into a fantasy figure. Firstly for a man she calls "Daddy" with whom she lies by the pool and for whom she dresses up in the house at the edge of the forest. Elli is the vessel for his memories, which mean nothing to her, but everything to him. One day he runs after a strange echo and gets lost in the darkness while Elli, who follows him, is picked up by strangers. A new identity awaits her, a new ghostly existence – as a blank screen onto which others can project their loss of the paradise that is childhood.

Austria’s new voice for the nexus between desire and the abyss, fear and mystery, feeling and emptiness is Sandra Wollner. As in "Das unmögliche Bild", in her provocative second feature film she develops the plot from a complex basic constellation (not the other way around) and reconstructs families that never existed. And so the machine becomes a mirror of human emotion, and the film a captivating ladder into virtual and psychological realities.

Source: 70. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (Catalogue)

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Credits

Director

Director of photography

Editing

Cast

Production company

All Credits

Duration:
94 min
Format:
DCP
Video/Audio:
Farbe, Ton
Censorship/Age rating:

FSK-Prüfung (DE): 23.11.2020, 202848, ab 16 Jahre / feiertagsfrei

Screening:

Uraufführung (DE): 25.02.2020, Berlin, IFF - Encounters;
Kinostart (DE): 01.07.2021

Titles

  • Originaltitel (DE) The Trouble With Being Born
  • Arbeitstitel Die Last geboren zu sein
  • Weiterer Titel Vom Nachteil geboren zu sein

Versions

Original

Duration:
94 min
Format:
DCP
Video/Audio:
Farbe, Ton
Censorship/Age rating:

FSK-Prüfung (DE): 23.11.2020, 202848, ab 16 Jahre / feiertagsfrei

Screening:

Uraufführung (DE): 25.02.2020, Berlin, IFF - Encounters;
Kinostart (DE): 01.07.2021

Awards

Preis der deutschen Filmkritik 2022
  • Preis der deutschen Filmkritik, Beste Kamera
  • Preis der deutschen Filmkritik, Bester Spielfilm
Österreichischer Filmpreis 2021
  • Österreichischer Filmpreis, Beste Maske
  • Österreichischer Filmpreis, Beste Tongestaltung
  • Österreichischer Filmpreis, Beste Regie
  • Österreichischer Filmpreis, Bester Film
Viennale 2020
  • Special Jury Award
  • Wiener Filmpreis
FIRST STEPS Awards 2020
  • FIRST STEPS Award, Abendfüllender Spielfilm
IFF Berlin 2020
  • Spezialpreis der Jury