Far from past

a film by Nicole Foelsterl
Country: Austria/Switzerland
Year: 2018
Length: 15'

“I’m not in the picture!” The grandmother is sure the filmmaker has positioned the camera wrong. The old lady vigorously defends her image of her-self against her granddaughter, who wants to learn more about her flight from Hungary to Austria. In a dialogue characterized by friction and intimacy, they reveal the way families pass on their history from one generation to the next, and how it works its way into the core of relationships.
“Far from past” is the filmmaker’s personal attempt to come to terms with the ambivalent history of her own grandmother as a member of the German-speaking minority of Danube Swabians during the Second World War. Intense scenes of these two women engaged in mundane tasks are interwoven with fragments of conversations and film footage from the old homeland to create a reflection on the elusive relationship between narrative and memory.

Festivals
1. Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur (Switzerland, November 2018)
2. Solothurner Filmtage (Switzerland, January 2019)
3. Diagonale - Festival of Austrian Film (Austria, March 2019)
4. Filmfest Dresden - International Short Film Festival (Germany, April 2019)
5. VIS Vienna Shorts (Austria, May/June 2019)
Best Film of the Austrian Competition, Elfi Dassanowsky Award, Jury Prize
6. Festival of Nations (Austria, June 2019)
7.Kortfilmfestivalen Grimstad (Norway, June 2019)
8. Palm Springs Shortsfest (USA, June 2019)
9. dotdotdot (Austria, August 2019)
10. White Frame (Switzerland, August 2019)
11. Solar Kino (Switzerland, September 2019)
12. Kasseler Dokfest (Germany, November 2019)
13. Flensburger Kurzfilmtage (Germany, November 2019)
10. Silk Road Film Festival (Ireland, January 2020)
11. dotdotdot Tour Programme (Austria, March 2020)
12. Bolton Film Festival (UK, October 2020)

Character
Marianne Schneider

Crew
Produced, directed and edited by: Nicole Foelsterl
Script consulting: Andres Veiel
Camera 2016: Astrid Heubrandtner
Super 8 films: Family archive
Sound 2016: Stefan Rosensprung
Visual Effects: Susanne Hofer
Post production: Matthias Kappeler
Trailer: Matthias Kappeler
Sound design: Gregg Skerman
Color grading: Ralph Wetli
Title design: Anne Güldner
German subtitles: Elisabeth Krüsi
English subtitles: Mark Miscovich
Graphic design: Karin Hutter
Communication: Geesa Tuch