“I’m not in the picture!” The grandmother is sure the filmmaker has positioned the camera wrong. The old lady vigorously defends her image of herself against her granddaughter, who wants to learn more about her flight from Hungary to Austria. In a dialogue characterized by friction and intimacy, they reveal the way families pass on their history from one generation to the next, and how it works its way into the core of relationships.
Trailer
Far from past
A film by Nicole Foelsterl, 2018
“Far from past” is the filmmaker’s personal attempt to come to terms with the ambivalent history of her own grandmother as a member of the German-speaking minority of Danube Swabians during the Second World War. Intense scenes of these two women engaged in mundane tasks are interwoven with fragments of conversations and film footage from the old homeland to create a reflection on the elusive relationship between narrative and memory.
Awards
VIENNA SHORTS AWARDS 2019 – Main Award National Competition – qualifies for the Academy Awards®
BEST FEMALE DIRECTOR 2019 – Elfi Dassanowsky Award
Festivals and Screenings
THIS IS SHORT, the joint platform of the four short film festivals Go Short (NL), International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (DE), Vienna Shorts (AT) und Short Waves (PL) | April 1 – June 30, 2021
Silk Road International Film Festival Dublin, Ireland | 21–25 January 2020
19th Flensburger Short Film Festival | 20-24 November 2019
36th Kasseler Dok Fest | 12-17 November 2019
25th Palm Springs International ShortFest 2019
The 42nd Norwegian Short Film Festival, 12th-16th of June 2019
Festival of Nations, Lenzing, Upper Austria, 8-13 June 2019
FILMFEST DRESDEN – International Short Film Festival, 9 – 14 April 2019
Diagonale’19 – Festival of Austrian Film | March 19–24, 2019, Graz
54th Solothurner Filmtage | 24th–31st January 2019
Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur | The Short Film Festival of Switzerland | 6–11 November 2018
Reviews
LANDSCAPES OF MEMORY: TWO AUSTRIAN LADIES LOOK BACK
Modern Times Review – The International Documentary Magazine
Neil Young – April 18, 2019
PREISREGEN FÜR ZWEI REGISSEURINNEN
hadl, ORF.at/Presseaussendungen VIS
Credits
Produced, directed and edited by NICOLE FOELSTERL
Character: MARIANNE SCHNEIDER
Script consulting: ANDRES VEIEL
Camera 2016: ASTRID HEUBRANDTNER
Sound 2016: STEFAN ROSENSPRUNG
Visual Effects: SUSANNE HOFER
Post production: MATTHIAS KAPPELER
Sound design: GREGG SKERMAN
Color grading: RALPH WETLI
Title design: ANNE GÜLDNER
German subtitles: ELISABETH KRÜSI
English subtitles: MARK MISCOVICH
Graphic design: KARIN HUTTER
Communication: GEESA TUCH
Financial support
CINE ART Steirische Filmförderung (AT)
FOCAL Mentorings for Doc (CH)
Distribution and Festival Strategies
General information
Original title: Eigentlich vergangen
International title: Far from past
Year of completion: 2018
Length: 15 minutes
Spoken language: German
Subtitles: German/English
Shooting format: HDV, High8, Super 8
Screening format: DPC, Apple Pro Res, H264
Contact
Nicole Foelsterl
mail@nicolefoelsterl.com