瞄准奥地利

　　In this intriguing experiment, four Austrian filmmakers take their cameras to the streets to find out what's going on in their country, most notably why in the last election (1999) the country elected a far-right candidate (Jörg Haider - who died in a car accident in 2008 while driving drunken) to the presidency. The film is divided into six documentary segments of varying lengths, capturing the rhythms of life around the country. The most startling thing is seeing how racism and intolerance is woven so deeply into the fabric of everyday life. We begin with a series of drivers talking to filmmaker Glawogger, who hitch-hiked around the countryside. What they say gets increasingly worrying, even as each one is a normal, quite likeable person unaware just how disturbing their opinions are. Other segments look at an obsessive man who has walled himself into his tightly ordered (and hilarious!) life, five single mothers trying to adjust their dreams to their realities, a series of "typical families" interviewed by a smiling TV presenter, and so on.
　　The reason this is all so entertaining is simple: These people are profoundly deluded, and we laugh at the irony as they talk about how their lives are fine but would be even more perfect if, for example, all the foreigners could just leave them in peace. But even as we laugh, a chill of horror runs up our spine. Not only are these people deeply misguided about the nations that border their country, but they are passing their prejudices to their children. One young boy mimics his father's opinions that putting a mosque in Austria is just wrong ... although he says he has Muslim friends in school, so you can see him struggling with the issue. His older brother is more indoctrinated, saying he could never have a Muslim friend. The frequent references to Hitler and Nazi Germany are especially unsettling, for obvious reasons. And we certainly can't miss the implications of all of this in a world that's swiftly moving to the right with more isolationism and less compassion.