In the Basement

A film essay by Ulrich Seidl

Whatever people no longer need, they dump in the basement. But they also store down there everything that they don't want others to see. In the Basement tells stories about people who pursue their obsessions in hiding. It's about sexuality and being ready to shoot, huge snakes in terrariums, fitness rooms and laundry rooms, and opera arias that fade out in vaulted underground rooms. Naked flesh is thrashed, people scream with pleasure and jokes are exchanged beneath a portrait of the Führer. After his PARADISE Trilogy, Ulrich Seidl returned to the documentary form with this film. This night-time sea journey through the underground of the soul led in 2014 to a political scandal that raged for weeks and the resignation of several Austrian politicians.

Credits

With support from: Austrian Film Institute, Vienna Film Fund, Land Niederösterreich | Co-produced by: ORF (Film/Fernseh-Abkommen), coop99 filmproduktion, WDR | In collaboration with: Arte

Director's statement

"In Austria the basement is a locus of free time and the private sphere. Many Austrians spend more time in the basement of their single-family homes than in their living room, which often serves only for show. In the basement they can satisfy their real needs and pursue hobbies, passions and obsessions. In our unconscious the basement is also a place of darkness, a place of fear, a place of human abysses." – Ulrich Seidl

Reviews

"A sublime film. An empathic observation of human nature."
Katja Nicodemus, Die Zeit

"Seidl's cinema upsets people because he looks for humanity and finds it there, where others presume are to be found only monsters."
Markus Keuschnigg, Die Presse

"In the Basement is Seidl's best film in a long time. With Seidl, what happens in front of the camera is actually still relevant. It is an event, it is a spectacle. You believe it, even though you almost always wonder and doubt. Seidl creates his very own cinematic magic. A festival of abysses."
Patrick Holzapfel, KINO-ZEIT.DE

Awards | Festivals

Awards
Vienna Film Prize 2015
OÖ-Nachrichten Documentary Film of the Year Audience Award 2015

Downloads

Pressbook PDF: german/english | italian/english
Pressphotos: 16x9 cm / 300dpi / jpg

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