Elfriede Jelinek – Language Unleashed

Snow-capped mountain tops, picturesque villages, wholesome towns… this is the Austria we know from travel books and travelogues. And it’s the same Austria whose small-town morals have been taking a beating from the critical sting of writer and playwright Elfriede Jelinek since the 1960s. However, Müller's documentary-portrait doesn't rely solely on the tropes of a biopic about this (in)famous literary figure. Instead, the film searches for reasons why the author's assertion of past unfinished business enraged the people of Austria so much that they turned their backs on the provocative Nobel Prize winner. Personal confessions become political. A language experiment becomes a political tool. And history becomes a shadow that will forever hover over distraught Austrian citizens until they choose to confront it head-on.

“I have the feeling that since my childhood I haven´t truly experienced anything anymore or anything that would somehow be of importance. I think that in general the artist tanks up so much frustration and pain in childhood that it´s enough for the rest of his life.”