The Cameramurderer

Colour, 35 mm
Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, 2010, 95 min
Section: Horizons

Synopsis

The Hungarian girl Sonja has found paradise on Earth. She’s in love with Thomas, an Austrian, and lives with him in the middle of stunning countryside on the shore of Lake Fertő, in a house straight out of a glossy home and lifestyle magazine. Over the Easter weekend they are to host old friends of Thomas’s from Vienna, Heinrich and Eva. However, their idyll is disrupted by the disappearance of three boys from the neighbourhood and particularly by the sudden discovery of a snuff video evidently filmed a few yards away from where Sonja and Thomas live, containing images of the missing children and the shoes of their unknown tormenter. The atmosphere between the friends changes and each of them slowly begins to reveal their true character. This psychological thriller based on Thomas Glavinic’s successful novel highlights the contrast between nature’s tranquil beauty and the restlessness of four people who gradually show signs of increasing fear and menacing suspicion. The film took away Best Direction ex-aequo from Hungarian Film Week in Budapest this year.

About the director

Robert Adrian Pejo (b. 1964, Arad, Romania) emigrated to Austria with his family in 1972. He started making short films at age 13, presented at various international amateur film festivals. His short feature Crescendo (1986) won the main award from the Association of Austrian Amateur Filmmakers. After studying engineering he took a course in theatre and film science. He debuted in 1993 with a feature made in Hungary, Lipstick (Rúzs). He then shot the documentaries The Road to Eden (Der Weg nach Eden, 1995) and R.I.P. Rest in Pieces (1997). He has also worked for TV, directing several episodes of the series "Crime Scene”. His second feature for the big screen, Dallas Among Us (Dallas Pashamende, 2005), was screened in the Panorama section at Berlin and in competition at KVIFF in 2005 (East of the West). Pejo has been living in New York since 1996.