Alarm

The documentary film accompanies full-time and volunteer firefighters from Wiener Neustadt during exercises and operations and shows how they spend their waiting times. The next emergency is just as omnipresent as the memories of difficult or even traumatising situations they have experienced together and the question of how best to deal with them. Film discussion on 23 April in the presence of Judith Zdesar.

In a world in which disasters are omnipresent, director Judith Zdesar accompanies the volunteer firefighters of Wiener Neustadt during operations, exercises and the waiting time in between in the documentary film ALARM. The film offers an intimate, undisguised insight into a world that is characterised by constant preparation for emergencies. Through bodycam footage, we experience the work of the firefighters up close. It is not necessarily the spectacular images of the operations that take centre stage, but the silent struggle with the inevitability of danger, loss and death. The film sheds light on how they deal with difficult experiences and constant threats, and questions how to find stability in a fragile world when the unexpected can happen at any time. A cinematic look at the existential uncertainty of our time. Film talk on 23 April in the presence of Judith Zdesar.