International Features Competition

The Trouble With Being Born

Swiss Premiere

Sandra Wollner / Austria, Germany / 2020 / 94 min / Drama, Science fiction
German / Subtitles English, French

Somewhere in Europe, in the near future. A child android and its creator, the difficulty of learning to be alive, the violence of lost paradises. A controversial anti-Pinocchio, daring and poignant, Sandra Wollner’s second film is one of the great cinematic shocks of the year.

“I didn't want her to want to become human, I wanted to make an anti-Pinocchio”. An android who looks like a ten-year-old girl is programmed to do whatever she is asked to. This portrait of a virtual creature is like a timeless reverie, an elliptical film populated by strange ghosts. A powerful reflection on loneliness, desire and memory that is both disturbing and controversial. A little gem of science fiction.

Direction

Sandra Wollner

Screenplay

Sandra Wollner, Roderick Warich

Image

Timm Kröger

Editing

Hannes Bruun

Sound

Peter Kutin

Music

David Schweighart, Peter Kutin

Production

Panama Film KG (Lixi Frank), Panama Film KG (David Bohun)

Co-production

The Barricades (Andi G Hess), The Barricades (Astrid Schäfer), The Barricades (Viktoria Stolpe), The Barricades (Timm Kröger), ZDF (Das Kleine Fernsehspiel)

With

Lena Watson, Dominik Warta, Ingrid Burkhard, Jana McKinnon, Simon Hatzl

International sales

Cercamon (Dorian Magagnin)

Distribution

Cercamon (Dorian Magagnin)

Sandra Wollner / Austria, 1983

Filmography

2016, The Impossible Picture

2015, Viktor (short)

2014, Louis & Luk (short)

2013, We Are Doing Well (short)