„Suddenly, completely pointlessly, our past is back again, impossible to love.“
– Elfriede Jelinek, The Children of the Dead

Holiday fun in Styria: The locals are enjoying themselves over a hearty meal in the sunshine at Pension Alpenrose. Their fun is momentarily interrupted by a group of Syrian poets who look forward to some good »Syrian cuisine« having missed the »t« at the guesthouse. But the locals soon get rid of the intruders and set off on their trip into the mountains. Then an accident occurs and the idyllic Alpine backdrop is gradually populated by the walking dead, doppelgängers and all kinds of curious characters …
Together with Thomas Bernhard and Ulrich Seidl, Elfride Jelinek is regarded as one of Austria’s fiercest critics. In her 666-page opus magnum The Children of the Dead, she brings charges against Austria for having never examined the memory of its Nazi past in the form of a phantasmagorical novel. The original book was considered unfilmable, but the two directors from the Nature Theater of Oklahoma had the text narrated to them orally and produced a film adaptation that is really something special. Filmed with a Super 8 camera as a silent movie in original Styrian locations, their film adaptation is both a visual and an aural challenge that polarises audiences with its grotesque, garish nonchalance. (MS)

Film Series Kaleidoscorpse