Before Sunrise

On the train journey from Budapest to Vienna, Frenchwoman Céline meets American Jesse. She is on her way home, Jesse has to get off the train in Vienna to fly back to the USA. They hit it off straight away.

Without hesitation, Céline accepts Jesse's proposal to spend his last hours in Vienna with him. They only have time until sunrise! On a unique night, they pursue their dreams and desires and fall in love. And when they part ways the next morning, nothing will ever be the same again. Will they ever see each other again?

"A long day's journey into the dawn: An American and a French woman meet on the train from Budapest to Vienna and have 24 hours to spend together. What they experience is an affair with a fixed expiration date.

With SLACKER and DAZED AND CONFUSED, Linklater has become a portraitist of Generation X, those people for whom the world is less will than imagination. In BEFORE SUNRISE, he is more interested in things that connect this generation with previous ones than in what makes them different. It's no coincidence that the movie is dedicated to his grandparents.

Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke give this story a body, but it is the city of Vienna that gives it life. Linklater is less interested in the unmistakable face of this city than in the interchangeable topography of the metropolis. He succeeds, and here he is very American, in capturing the familiar and yet casting his own gaze on it. Vienna thus becomes an enchanted place, a hall of mirrors, a maze, a wonderland." (Michael Althen, film.at)