Sunspots

A young woman and a little girl are playing football. When the ball flies into the air the black and white sequence transmutes into the red of the evening sky. High up in the air a bird is flying. The bird belongs to a dream. The beginning is programmatic. The various events flow seamlessly into one another and tell of the imponderability of growing up - dreams and expectations, work, frustration and the music which allows one to dance above it all. Rhythm of the heart... Two young women live with little Angie somewhere on the edge of the city. What do they expect from life? The film is a filigreed weave of the commonplace gesture and small acts of flight. Ildiko dreams of hot-blooded pirates. She wants to leave. Uschi stares up at the sky. She will stay. "In 200 years people will be living on Mars, or perhaps they won´t." Everything is possible. Lost in space... Maybe there is even a paradise for Angie´s dead guinea pig. Expectations remain in the balance, but why shouldn´t it possible to have a stroke of luck...just for you... (Birgit Flos)


Sunspots is the story of two young waitresses working at a highway rest station, capturing the heroine´s desolate relationships and the dreariness of their lifestyles by employing all the formal beauty and poetry the instrument of cinema is singularly capable of conjuring. Albert conceives cinema as an impressionistic art, as an emancipated space where reality and fantasy, inner life and the external world can freely merge. This filmmaker is continually able to translate her stories into plasticity and motion, color and music, using genuinely cinematic means to resolve her narrative in a manner that is entirely rare, and not only here in this country. (Stefan Grissemann)

Orig. Title
Sonnenflecken
Year
1998
Country
Austria
Duration
25 min
Director
Barbara Albert
Category
Short fiction
Orig. Language
German
Subtitles
English
Downloads
Sunspots (Image)
Credits
Director
Barbara Albert
Script
Barbara Albert
Cinematography
Christine A. Maier
Music
Bruno Pisek, Heinz Ditsch
Sound
Wolfgang Mayr, Fritz Noltmann
Editing
Julia Pontiller
Sound Editing
Wolfgang Widerhofer
Actor/Actress
Una Wipplinger, Nina Proll, Kathrin Resetarits, Victor Tremmel
Art Direction
Karin Macher, Mona Quintus
Production Manager
Tim Cupal, Sandra Gigerl, Ursula Wolschlager
Available Formats
35 mm (Original Format)
Aspect Ratio
1:1,66
Sound Format
Dolby stereo
Frame Rate
24 fps
35 mm (Distribution Copy)
Aspect Ratio
1:1,66
Sound Format
Dolby stereo
Frame Rate
24 fps
Festivals (Selection)
1998
Poitiers - Recontres Internationales Henri Langlois
Graz - Diagonale, Festival des österreichischen Films
1999
Hamburg - Int. Kurzfilm-Festival & No Budget
Regensburg - Kurzfilmwoche
Austin - Cinetexas - Int. short film&video&new media festival
New York - Expo of Short Film & Video
Clermont-Ferrand - Festival de Court Metrage
Viareggio - Europa Cinema & TV Film Festival
Angers - Premiers Plans
2000
Triest - Alpe Adria Cinema - Film Festival
Stuttgart - Filmwinter, Expanded Media Festival
Istanbul - Int. Short Film Festival