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On a sweltering hot summer day, the 'dog days' settle on an affluent Vienna suburb. Behind the sterile exteriors, outer garments and inhibitions are cast off as six characters lose their cool. Former beauty queen Klaudia finds herself the target of her boyfriend's insane jealousy. An elderly man directs his housecleaner to dress in his dead wife's clothes then strip for him on what would hare been his fiftieth wedding anniversary. A woman entertains her new masseur-lover while ex-hubby sleeps under the same roof.
Director Ulrich Seidl's first stab at fiction follows a string ot documentaries: his Animal Love bewitched MIFF 1996 audiences with its inquiry into people who push their passion for pets beyond the post! Whilst scraping the same barrel of human pathos as Todd Solondz's Happiness or Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, Seidl has molded Dog Days into something ominously original: gross and sardonic, violent and comic. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Venice Film Festival, and a hit at Sundance, Berlin, London and Venice Film Festivals.
"Dog Days is a dark, probing, truly disturbing exploration of angst, anomie and alienation." - Screen International
Ulrich Seidl (born Vienna, 1952) is internationally acclaimed for his award-winning documentaries Good News (1990), Animal Love (MIFF 1996) and Models (1998). His distinct portrayal of humanity in its most isolated and intimate moments has provoked debates about methods of creating authenticity. Werner Herzog ranks Seidl among his ten favourite filmmakers.