Bellaria – So lange wir leben!

In a small side street behind the Volkstheater in Vienna there is a tiny, very popular repertory cinema where time appears to have stood still. The “Bellaria” cinema is a regular meeting place for a merry band of afficionados of old ‘Ufa’ films and the late, great stars of yesteryear. These fans are all around seventy years of age and older. For a few schilling, they can sit back in a cinema seat and allow themselves to be transported back to the days of their youth. This documentary is a cinematic journey of discovery in a setting simply oozing with – albeit run-down – old-world charm. The film takes a look at the personal histories of the sometimes rather comical regulars and reveals their real dream – to turn back the wheel of time for a few moments and conjure up once more their lost youth. Time and again, they manmage to play their little trick on the Grim Reaper – with plenty of emotion and, naturally, a good dose of typically Viennese humour, or schmäh.