A failed artist builds a rival to destroy him—then discovers who's really pulling the strings.
Based on the drama by Wolfgang Bauer. Fery Kaltenböck is a painter of the Viennese avant-garde in the post-1968 milieu. His lack of success plunges him into depression. Out of frustration, he builds the Pölten painter Blasius Okopenko into a star, only to subsequently destroy him and gain fame through the scandal. But his plans fail because he underestimated Okopenko. When Kaltenböck realizes that he is becoming the manipulated man, depression and conscience drive him to suicide, and he hangs himself.
Acting
Reiner Schöne's magnetic, maddening Okopenko steals every frame.
Production
Fischerauer captures post-1968 Vienna's suffocating creative stagnation.
Director
Bernd Fischerauer
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Wolfgang Bauer's original play premiered in 1969, capturing the bitter disillusionment of Austria's radical youth after 1968's failed revolution.
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