Austria in the mid-1950s. Seamstress Elfi Redlich and her two children are about to emigrate to America with occupation officer Hal when her husband, missing for eleven years, returns home from Siberia. Factory owner Ulmendorff is deported to Russia on his way to his niece Valerie's wedding as a result of an intrigue by his employee Hasak. Hasak's joy is short-lived, as the Jewish owner of the factory asserts his ownership.
Acting
Helmut Berger's menacing uncle energy
Production
Period detail drowning in melodrama
Director
Harald Sicheritz
Harald Krassnitzer
Johann Ulmendorff
Nina Proll
Elfi Redlich
Julie Engelbrecht
Valerie Ulmendorff
August Zirner
Paul Berkowitz
Helmut Berger
Gregor Ulmendorff
Roland Düringer
Otto Hasak
Maria Köstlinger
Gerti Baumer
Wolf Bachofner
Pollak
Wolfgang Böck
Leo Beierl
Karl Fischer
Wildgruber
Michou Friesz
Frau Pivonka
Lucas Gregorowicz
Ferencz Tamasy
Fritz Karl
Ferdinand Redlich
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Helmut Berger, playing Gregor, was actually a 1970s European cinema icon—his casting adds meta-weight to the returning-soldier role.
The film satirizes Austria's post-war myth of victimhood while indulging in the very melodrama it critiques.
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