Archive of films Crash Test Dummies / Crash Test Dummies

Austria
2005, 93 min

Section: Another View
Year: 2005

Another “film in segments” which describes the encounter of young people who are united in their existence as strange outsiders. Ana and Nicolae travel from Bucarest to Vienna to take back a stolen car to Romania. The situation becomes complicated and the pair have to wait a few days, during which time they meet several Viennese contemporaries who, like them, are shuffling along, trying to find security in their lives.

Synopsis

Ana and Nicolae travel from Bucharest to Vienna by coach. They have to pick up a stolen car and take it back to Romania. Things don’t go exactly according to plan and they have to wait a few days. They have no money and their original optimism is beginning to wane. And their relationship is cracking under the strain. Nicolae makes the acquaintance of the highly obliging Dana, and Ana crosses paths several times with a shy but good-natured store detective called Jan. He has a flatmate, Martha, who suffers from depression. The somnambulant girl earns money as a human dummy during car crash tests. Like her, the other protagonists also experience their life “collisions”, sometimes with tragic, at other times comic touches. Debuting Austrian director Jörg Kalt uses a traditional mosaic structure of narration, in which the stories of several people gradually intertwine, people who are united in their existence as strange outsiders. The individual episodes develop like spokes from the hub of Vienna’s Central Station.

About the director

Jörg Kalt (b. 1967, Suresnes near Paris) grew up in Zurich and Munich. In the years 1987-1990 he studied English language and literature and law at Zurich University, and worked as a journalist. He attended Prague’s FAMU (1991-92) and studied directing under Peter Patzak at the Vienna Film Academy (1994-2001). Apart from his feature debut Crash Test Dummies (2005), screened this year at the Berlin IFF, he has made several short and medium-length films, e.g. Eternity Starts Here (1992-93), Meine Mutter war ein Metzger (1997), Lesen macht tot (2000) and Richtung Zukunft durch die Nacht (2002).

Contacts

AMOUR FOU Vienna GmbH
Lindengasse 32, A-1070, Vienna
Austria
Tel: +43 1 994 991 10
Fax: +43 1 994 991 120
E-mail: [email protected]
www: amourfoufilm.com/

Austrian Films
Stiftgasse 6, 1070, Vienna
Austria
Tel: +43 1 526 33 23
E-mail: [email protected]
www: austrianfilm.com

About the film

Color, 35 mm

Section:	Another View

Director:	Jörg Kalt
Screenplay:	Jörg Kalt
Dir. of Photography:	Eva Testor
Music:	Bernhard Fleischmann
Editor:	Emily Artmann
Producer:	Gabriele Kranzelbinder, Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu
Production:	Amour Fou Filmproduktion GmbH
Cast:	Maria Popistasu, Bogdan Dumitrache, Simon Schwarz, Kathrin Resetarits, Viviane Bartsch, Barbara Albert, Stipe Erceg
Contact:	AMOUR FOU Vienna GmbH, Austrian Films

www:	www.crashtestdummies.at

Guests

Anne Laurent - Delage

Film Institution Rep.

Jörg Kalt

Film Director

Kathrin Resetartis

Actor

Peter Jäger

Buyer, Distributor

Salma Abdalla

Sales Agent