Fuchs im Bau

12 novembre > SALA 5 ore 17

Austria – 2020 – colore – 103’

CREDITS

Direction: Arman T. Riahi

Screenplay: Arman T. Riahi

Cinematography: Mario Minichmayr

Editing: Karina Ressler

Set design: Martin Reiter

Score: Karwan Marouf

Costumes: Monika Buttinger

Cast: Aleksandar Petrovic, Maria Hofstätter, Luna Jordan, Andreas Lust, Sibel Kekilli, Karl Fischer, Anica Dobra

Producers: Arash T. Riahi & Karin C. Berger

Production: Golden Girls 

World Sales: EastWest Filmdistribution

SYNOPSIS

Forty-year-old Hannes Fuchs is an ambitious middle-school teacher. He starts a new job as a teacher in a prison school. His main aspiration is to help the students. Fuchs is a deeply hurt man, hoping to redeem his past mistakes by choosing this, the most challenging of schools, as his workplace. There, he is forced to confront his biggest fear. He will rediscover his own buried creativity and lust for life, reminding him why he became a teacher in the first place. The film is inspired by a teacher from Vienna.

THE DIRECTOR: ARMAN T. RIAHI

Film director and scriptwriter, born in Iran. He grew up in Vienna. He studied media technologies and worked as a screen and graphic designer in London and Vienna. His first documentary Dark Head (2011) opened the documentary competition of the 17th Sarajevo Film Festival. His second documentary Everyday Rebellion (2014), co-directed with his brother Arash, was screened at over 60 international film festivals. His first feature film, the comedy The Migrumpies (2017) was one of the most successful Austrian films of 2017. Since 2013, he has been a lecturer at the film/TV masterclass of the University of Applied Sciences in St. Pölten. Fox in a Hole is his second feature film.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

“The Youth Court Support organisation works very closely with the judicial system and does extremely good work. You really can’t blame them for anything. It’s impossible to overturn the system from one day to the next. The judicial system is extremely underfinanced and has too few staff. But we need to think of alternative models so that these children – and 14-year-olds are children, even if they are on the verge of adulthood – can be helped in the right direction even if they have been convicted and imprisoned. Prison as an institution is a highly debatable concept, and it’s very important to ask some fundamental questions about whether what happens there is right. Isolation and imprisonment are not a good solution. And you could make a start by not putting these children in the same building as hardened criminals who are going to be inside for the rest of their lives.”

FILMOGRAPHY

2011 Schwarzkopf (Dark Head, doc)

2014 Everyday Rebellion (doc)

2016 Kinders (doc)

2017 Die Migrantigen (The Migrumpies)

2020 Fuchs im Bau (Fox in a Hole)

AWARDS AND FESTIVALS

2020 Warsaw IFF – Official Competition

2021 Max Ophüls Preis – Official Competition: Best Director, Best Screenplay, Youth Jury Award

2021 Diagonale`21 – Opening Film: Thomas Pluch Special Jury Award, Best Editing

2021 28th Art Film Fest Košice

2021 Pula FF

2021 Shanghai IFF