Malaria

Time travel to Vienna in the early 1980s: no-future meets new wave at Café Malaria. While a group of young poppers (led by Andreas Vitásek) celebrate the good life and themselves and left-wing activists politicise Mao, Wittgenstein and co., the hard-boiled bartender Tusnelda mixes cool drinks with funny names (‘Schizo’ or ‘Green Coitus’) from the chemistry set. It's a place for everyone, where you can get whatever your heart desires - and a pretty cool film where you'd like to spend a few more hours. For decades, Niki List's iconic first film was only available to view in suboptimal quality - now, thanks to an elaborate digital restoration by the Filmarchiv Austria, it shines in unprecedented splendour.
(Florian Widegger)