Postadresse: 2640 Schlöglmühl

The disappearance of a factory and the consequent unraveling of a town’s social fabric—this is the starting point for Egon Humer’s filmic essay, which takes the groundbreaking study "The Unemployed of Marienthal" as its reference point. "Humer undoubtedly explores the impact of unemployment within people’s everyday lives, finding authentic images to convey it. (...) Unemployment strikes the individual, yet simultaneously rests on economic calculations that leave the individual out of the equation. For those affected, it is an outrage and a betrayal; for the alliance of state politics, trade unions, and the media, it is less than a footnote. Thus, the faces of those who lost their jobs remain weary, their hands grasping at empty air. Humer voices his protest unobtrusively—an approach that gains in both sharpness and coherence."