Abstract

While Harald Friedl’s 2001 documentary Africa Representa and his most recent project based in Bhutan, What Happiness Is (2013), clearly reinforce the filmmaker’s international self-image, the individuals at the center of Friedl’s Land ohne Eigenschaften (2000), Aus der Zeit (2007), and Mein Leben als Apfelbaum (2012) also share an existence profoundly influenced by international forces, even if they live and work in and around Vienna. From globalization to exile identity to postwar sociopolitical philosophy, the experiences that Friedl portrays in his “Austrian Trilogy” are indicative of a nation that reverberates both the bygone transnational Habsburg Empire and the two most significant international events of the twentieth century: the First and Second World Wars. This article will focus on Friedl’s approach of making complex connections between Austria’s past and future with balanced and compelling portraits of humanity through a distinctly international lens.

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