The film follows the amour fou between the Grande Madame of Vienna’s cultural society, Alma Mahler, and the young expressionist artist Oskar Kokoschka. Alma allows herself to be painted by the unknown artist, seduces him and instructs the inexperienced young man in the arts of eroticism. He is one of many conquests to her, but she is to him his first great love. He makes her his muse; she becomes his source of inspiration.  He cannot paint without her, he says. But she refuses to be there for him alone, because she too is striving for recognition in the society of Vienna.

The Embassy of Austria has the pleasure to screen a drama directed by Dieter Berner. In 1912, the widowed Alma Mahler, Grand Dame of Viennese society, falls for the „Enfant Terrible „of Vienna‘s art scene, Oskar Kokoschka. But, as their passion grows, it threatens to destroy the world they have built for themselves, and to take them both down with it.

Director: Dieter Berner – 2022 – 88‘

Genre: Drama

A few words from the Director: Although Alma and Oskar are “historical” figures, the audience should encounter them as if they were of the “here and now”. Their conflicts are modern, and we do not need nostalgic evocations of the past to understand them.

Cast: Emily Cox, Valentin Postlmayr, Anton von Lucke

Rating: 16+

Language: German with English subtitles

In cooperation with the Friends of Cinema Society