An unhappy young photographer is about to make his debut as a journalist. He is to write an obituary about the weapons-crazy mayor of a Lower Austrian village who, it is said, had a tank from WWII. In the course of his research he unearths a conspiracy of wifes murdering their husbands to get an early widowers pension.
Acting
Dolores Schmidinger's deadpan menace as ringleader Helga.
Writing
Turning bureaucratic pension law into compelling murder motive.
Direction
Allahyari balancing genuine tension with absurd village comedy.
Director
Houchang Allahyari
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The film satirizes Austria's notorious 'Witwenrente' (widow's pension) debates, where actual policy discussions about early retirement benefits made headlines in the 1990s.
Director Houchang Allahyari, an Iranian-Austrian filmmaker, shot this in his adopted Lower Austria specifically to subvert the Heimatfilm tradition of idyllic rural life.
No ratings yet
Sign in to join the discussion — comments are spoiler-gated to your watch progress.
Discussion starters
DE
AT
