Megacities

In the dark zones of globalised metropolises: with the street children of Moscow; the Mexican chicken foot vendors; the rubbish collectors of Mumbai; a Mexican stripper; a New York hustler. "In the dense web of this film, sentences and images, characters and situations sometimes communicate almost magically, across continents. Yet each episode remains concrete. Instead of generalisation and stylistic unity, Glawogger seeks the impure and invents a specific view for each character: a small melodrama (for Cassandra), an end-time painting (for the dogs of Mexico City), a solidarity musical (for the women of the Moscow drinkers). In the middle of it all, a stocky tribune of the people, costumed in the style of a comic figure, dictates a message to his secretary from the 'city of demons and charlatans' - 'I, the Superbarrio Gómez, fantasma real and everyday hero by profession, tell you that the absurd is a cultural heritage of all mankind'." (Alexander Horwath)

In the presence of producer Peter Wirthensohn on 23 March

Photo: Austrian Film Museum