Benedikt Mitmannsgruber

As if out of nowhere, Benedikt Mitmannsgruber turned 30 overnight.
Surrounded by forests, cows and farms, he looks back on the last few years.

In the attic of his parents' house, he discovers a yellowed album containing a family tree of his family.
For Benedikt Mitmannsgruber, this marks the beginning of a furious journey through his family's past and his own absurd everyday life.

The journey begins at the beginning of the 20th century in a small village on the Czech border. There, Benedikt Mitmannsgruber's great-grandparents decide to have 15 children. Benedikt Mitmannsgruber's parents were born in the 1960s. They spend their childhood next to the Iron Curtain in the depths of the Austrian province. No one really knows whether this small strip of land actually belongs to the Czech Republic or to Austria. In the 1990s, the curtain falls and Benedikt Mitmannsgruber's parents decide to have a son. He is born into a world into which he never really fits, but which he nevertheless loves with all its quirky inhabitants and idiosyncrasies.

A homage to growing up in the middle of nowhere. A declaration of love to the forgotten backwaters. A journey into our own past. A whimsical look at our society and a world that has gone off the rails.

Benedikt Mitmannsgruber's third program, "1996", is dedicated to his two parents and four grandparents who, despite growing up in the middle of nowhere with hardly any prospects, shaped him into the Benedikt Mitmannsgruber he is today!

Director: Jürgen Marschal

Picture: Anna Sophie Kölbl