Step On It

Colour, 35mm
Austria, 2001, 96 min
Section: Another View

Synopsis

Evi is an attractive young woman, a single mother who lives in ski country with her little girl. During the ski season she works as a waitress, and when she’s got the night shift, which is fairly often, daughter Paula is looked after by Evi’s older sister. At least then the little one comes in contact with a responsible adult role-model and a decent family environment. During the day Evi works at the restaurant, in the afternoon she’s on duty at the beer bar by the ski lifts and in the evening it’s the bar in the hotel disco. But Evi wants to enjoy life and every workday ends with wild partying laced with alcohol and cheap sex with seemingly any tourist hungry for a little action. Evi is living life in the fast lane, always “stepping on it,” but she only feels right – happy, courageous, open – when she’s got booze coursing through her veins. After a couple of hours’ sleep she tries to spend at least a few moments with her daughter as she runs to catch the school bus, but she usually just ends up buying her off with various presents. Then it’s off to work once again and more partying in the evening. It’ll be another long night and she won’t remember the name of the guy she wakes up with the next morning. How long can she keep it up? One day Evi has to realise that her life is spinning out of control.

About the director

Sabine Derflinger first came to film through practical experience, working (beginning 1983) as a production assistant, script girl and assistant director. Only afterward did she begin studies at Vienna’s Film Academy (in 1991), graduating in script editing and writing in 1996. With co-director Bernhard Pötscher, she made the short Once Upon a Time (Er war einmal, 1991), and their collaboration continued with the documentaries Stolen Childhood (Geraubte Kindheit, 1994), Attention, International Frontier (Achtung Staatsgrenze, 1996) and The Rounder Girls (1998). Derflinger won the Carl Mayer Prize for the script for her feature debut Step On It.