2023-09-13 19:31:00
Exactly one week following the premiere of the first film regarding ex-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP), director Kurt Langbein’s film premiered at Vienna’s Gartenbaukino on Wednesday evening. “Project Ballhausplatz” aims to take a critical look at the era of the ex-ÖVP boss, as Langbein made clear once more at the premiere. In contrast to the “short” start a week ago, the ÖVP celebrities didn’t appear this time.
Kurz himself had already declared at the premiere of the film by director Sascha Köllnreitner (title: “Kurz”) – which observers classify as Kurz-friendly – that he would not watch Langbein’s work. Unlike Köllnreitner, he also rejected Langbein’s interview requests. Langbein did not give him the impression of being “objective,” said Kurz, justifying this decision. Like the ex-ÖVP boss, all of the turquoise celebrities stayed away from the Langbein premiere. At the premiere of the Köllnreitner film, however, the audience appeared almost entirely closed – from the current members of the government to party grandees such as National Council President Wolfgang Sobotka downwards.
Director regrets Kurz’s absence
Langbein said he regretted Kurz’s absence and interview rejection because he would have liked to ask him “what the background is for his ambitions to seize power and stay in power.” He would also have liked to know “why he deals with facts and the truth in such a memorably problematic way and why demagoguery is the most appropriate means” of pursuing politics. “And whether he really intends to go back into politics, because he behaves as if he does.”
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cultural “Kurz wore a mask from the start”
Langbein considers the competing film to be a preparatory measure for a comeback. “A manager who does international business doesn’t behave like that.” Kurz, on the other hand, is looking for the public, acting as “a kind of statesman”, and having “a film produced in no time” in order to get on the screen before “Project Ballhausplatz”. He was a little “shocked” at first, “because the intention was to dig up the water.” “Now I see that the attention has increased, I would like to thank everyone involved.”
Work out the secret to success
The reason for the “Ballhausplatz” film was to find out “what Sebastian Kurz’s secret to success is.” In Langbein’s opinion, what remains of his era is primarily the spread of exclusion of the socially disadvantaged, refugees and foreigners. “He took political communication far to the right and brought xenophobia to the center of society, not much else.”
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“Kurz – The Film”: Numerous turquoise celebrities at the cinema premiere
On the part of the ÖVP, only ex-EU Commissioner Franz Fischler strayed into the Gartenbaukino, who had already made critical comments regarding the Kurz era in the past. He initially had high hopes for Kurz, said Fischler when he arrived. However, it then “developed in a very unique direction”. Briefly, like a New Year’s Eve rocket, “started steeply upwards” and then quickly fell back to the ground “into the darkness” with a huge bang, Fischler repeated a comparison made the previous year. However, he believes that Kurz’s comeback is entirely possible: If the court proceedings end well for Kurz, then a return is “very likely”.
Image: GEORG HOCHMUTH (APA)
These were the celebrities at the premiere
Numerous protagonists of the film also came to the premiere of the approximately 100-minute collage of archive material and interviews with observers: In addition to the journalist Barbara Toth, the NEOS National Council members Stephanie Krisper and Helmut Brandstätter also graced the cinema on Ringstrasse. Also present on Wednesday evening was media scientist Fritz Hausjell, who was interviewed by Köllnreitner for the “short” film, but then did not appear in the film (probably because of rather critical comments regarding the Turquoises’ so-called “message control”).
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From the festival to the courtroom
Among the premiere guests were the Vienna city councilor Veronica Kaup-Hasler (SPÖ), ex-Green MP Karl Öllinger and the writer Robert Menasse.
Image: GEORG HOCHMUTH (APA)
They were all presented with a model of the infamous “Geilomobile” in front of the cinema – the Hummer off-road vehicle with which Kurz once posed as the young JVP boss (under the slogan “Black makes you horny”). As an analogy to the moral deconstruction of the Kurz phenomenon that the film aims to achieve, such a car is dismantled in the film. This was repeated, at least to some extent, in front of the cinema: mechanics dismantled one of the vehicle’s doors, which attracted media attention.
Image: GEORG HOCHMUTH (APA)
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