“No to Waldheim, no to Waldheim!” chants a crowd of people in the centre of Vienna in 1986. Ruth Beckermann is one of the activists trying to prevent Kurt Waldheim from being elected, documenting the bitter political reality with her camera. More than thirty years later, she uses her footage together with extensive international TV archive material to analyse what marked a turning point in Austria’s political culture. While Waldheim’s attempts to reject the facts and mask the truth stirred revolt, they also effected denial by the Austrian political class and the outbreak of anti-Semitism and patriotism, ultimately resulting in Waldheim's election as President of Austria. Best Documentary Award at Berlinale 2017
What's On
Fiume o morte! Fiume o morte!
Igor Bezinović
Friday, 12. 12. 2025 / 19:45 / Small Hall
On 12 September 1919, a troop of some three hundred soldiers under the leadership of the flamboyant war-loving Italian poet Gabriele D’Annunzio swooped into the Northern-Adriatic port town of Fiume, now Rijeka, wanting to annex the city to Italy. Over the course of the next 16 months, during what is regarded as one of the most bizarre militant sieges of all time his official photography team captured over 10,000 images. A century later, Igor Bezinović orchestrates a direct-action history lesson focused on the siege and its modern-day implications.