Das Vaterspiel

Michael Glawogger's unmistakable, category-busting approach has bucked many cinema trends: Das Vaterspiel is unusual not only as a bestselling film adaptation (based on Josef Haslinger), but even more so in its cinematic exploration of the legacy of National Socialism. The story of the encounter between a man (Helmut Köpping) who has developed a patricidal computer game and a hidden Nazi criminal is told like a puzzle, the pieces of which ultimately cannot be fully put together: The emotional overpowering that both coping blockbusters and horror chronicles of the Nazi era rely on is consistently denied. This makes the gaps that are left for the audience to fill all the more lasting: Although the plot is full of complex correspondences, both large and small, their dislocation prevents them from being pieced together to form simple theses. Cool, glassy and multi-layered, Das Vaterspiel presents itself as the yin to the yang of the warm, surreal and rich comedy Contact High, which was released at practically the same time. (Christoph Huber)

Photo: Austrian Film Museum