Zur Lage
About the event
After the right-wing election landslide, four directors set out across Austria searching for signs of the political and social situation of its citizens. In his segment, Ulrich Seidl confronts everyday racism that spirals into an absurd xenophobia. Grim and uncomfortably funny. Four directors, four perspectives, four realities. Why do people tolerate Jörg Haider’s ideas or even find them appealing? The directors of Zur Lage reveal the perennial xenophobia in Austria. Seidl’s second chapter ‘Johann Leeb’ is about an obsessive writer of letters to the media and in another of his segments we end up in a bar where two drinkers increasingly loudly voice their opinions on their fatherland with a disturbing climax. Ulrich Seidl: "The idea for the film crystallized in 1999…