Michael Thomas

A nurse from Ukraine searches for a better life in the West, while an unemployed security guard from Austria heads East for the same reason. Both are looking for work, a new beginning, an existence, struggling to believe in themselves, to find a meaning in life...

Hostage-taking in a maximum security prison. Three felons bring three friends with homemade bombs under their control. A police officer who happens to be on duty conducts the negotiation with the highly narcissistic head of the hostage-takers, who are ready for anything.

Haulage dispatcher Freddy Sternthaler suddenly finds himself hopelessly involved in an absurd dispute in the art scene and experiences what is probably the worst night of his life on an odyssey through Vienna.

“Red Fox” tells a gripping contemporary tale of kidnapping, terrorism and political intrigue. Based on the book by Gerald Seymour, with a screenplay by James McManus, it tells the story of when Geoffrey Harrison (Brian Cox), a top executive with British Defence Industries, is kidnapped in Paris and, when held to ransom, his company and the British Embassy are unwilling to meet his captors demands. Wanting to avoid publicity and secure a lucrative French defence contract, matters are made worse when the British and French Governments refuse to negotiate with the kidnappers. Archie Carpenter (John Hurt), Head of Internal Security at BDI, is assigned to investigate the kidnapping, and finds an unexpected ally in an Paul de Vigny (Didier Flamand), an agent with the French MI5. As Harrison’s fate hangs in the balance, Carpenter risks his life in the fight to save him but the nightmare has only just begun…

In Rimini (2022) and Sparta (2022), Ulrich Seidl followed the lives of two brothers, Richie and Ewald, respectively. The former is a crooner long past his prime yet still beloved by hordes of late-middle-aged female fans who can also buy his sexual attention; the latter is a technician living in Romania and wrestling with his pedophile desires. These two tales were supposed to be told in one film – and now they finally are! The result offers a staggeringly different experience of the narrative(s). It's far more cerebral, above all a work of ideas.

Her mother in Kenya, 13-year-old Melanie spends her summer vacation at a strict diet camp set in the Austrian countryside. Between workouts and nutrition classes, pillow fights and first cigarettes, she falls in love with a doctor 40 years her senior.

A snowed-in holiday hotel. A dead body in a room locked from the inside. The hotel manager wants to cover it up, but in the blink of an eye the whole hotel knows about it. Among the guests is an inspector - or at least he convincingly claims to be - who, together with his assistant who has travelled with him, undertakes extensive investigations. Then even a second murder takes place!

After discovering his wife's infidelities, Gerry leaves London to look after his deceased brother's business and family in Singapore. Discovering a foreign world of opportunity that had not existed before gives Gerry a chance at starting over by slipping into his brother's life - both emotionally and physically. However, leaving his wife and child behind in the UK is not so easy as Gerry must choose between becoming his brother's alter ego 'Mister John' or returning to London to face his failing relationship.

Monika Donner is a transsexual elite soldier, a front figure for gender rights and an author celebrated by the political right-wing. She, who was once a he, quickly becomes a lone fighter between the ideological fronts.

Featuring disco parking lots, Elvis impersonators and tough choices between personal happiness and responsibility for others, Elephant Skin combines its almost documentary grit with thick dialects and gentle stoicism to produce a superior fiction film.

Liebe wie's im Büchel steht

Movie version of The Mallen Secret. Edited together from the episodes of The Mallens.

Richie Bravo, once upon a time a successful pop star, chases after his faded fame in wintry Rimini. Trapped between permanent intoxication and concerts for busloads of tourists, his world starts to collapse when his adult daughter breaks into his life.

Michael Larson, a vagabond singer, wants to change his life and start all over again, causing great disaster.

After his handler is killed, police dog Rex teams up with recently-divorced inspector Richard Moser to investigate crimes and solve mysteries on the streets of Vienna. And they sometimes get help from their two-legged friend, Inspector Stockinger.

SOKO Donau is an Austrian television series.

Tatort is a long-running German/Austrian/Swiss, crime television series set in various parts of these countries. The show is broadcast on the channels of ARD in Germany, ORF in Austria and SF1 in Switzerland.