Ruth Beckermann

The filmmaker stands for political cinema that poses questions about individual and collective identity. Ruth Beckermann has been a chronicler of Jewish life in Austria and the world for more than 40 years, putting her documentary finger into the still festering wound of anti-Semitism. She conveys her always personal view of things as a narrator in essayistic style, and off-camera commentator. The presence of her unmistakable, Viennese-tinged voice, which sometimes slips into the poetic, sometimes tells of her own childhood memories and juxtaposes them with images, creates an additional dimension that is characteristic for Beckermann.
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  • The Waldheim Waltz

    The Waldheim Waltz

    2018

    1h.34min

    16+

    This documentary tells the incredibly shocking story of how a Nazi officer became a top politician and UN Secretary General.

  • American Passages

    American Passages

    2011

    2h.0min

    16+

    An epic documentary panorama about a journey through the United States.

  • The Dreamed Ones

    The Dreamed Ones

    2016

    1h.29min

    16+

    The film is about love and hate, about right and wrong words. At its centre are Ingeborg Bachmann and Paul Celan, who met in post-war Vienna.

  • East of War

    East of War

    1996

    1h.52min

    16+

    The testimonies of former Wehrmacht soldiers collected by Ruth Beckermann are still horrifying today.

  • Towards Jerusalem

    Towards Jerusalem

    1990

    1h.25min

    16+

    Beckermann's subjects offer a dramatic range of candid opinions about Arab-Jewish relations, immigration, the intifada, religion, and the economy.

  • Those Who Go Those Who Stay

    Those Who Go Those Who Stay

    2013

    1h.15min

    16+

    THOSE WHO GO THOSE WHO STAY is Ruth Beckermann's meta-film - an analysis of her own cinematic works, a kind of progress report.

  • The Paper Bridge

    The Paper Bridge

    1987

    1h.32min

    16+

    A journey through Austrian filmmaker Ruth Beckermann's own family's history and at the same time, the story of Central Europe's Jews and of a region.

  • Return to Vienna

    Return to Vienna

    1983

    1h.31min

    16+

    Franz West (1909-85) remembers his youth in Vienna: the diverse Jewish population the Red Vienna labor movement and the rise of Austrofascism.

  • A Fleeting Passage To The Orient

    A Fleeting Passage To The Orient

    1999

    1h.22min

    16+

    This captivating film shows the less-knon sides of the Elisabeth, Empress of Austria, aka Empress Sissi on her travels to Egypt in 1885 and 1891.