In the Mühlviertel they say it takes three things to become an adult man: one must conceive a child, build a house, and plant a tree. Benedikt Mitmannsgruber is not a man like any other. He is thin, weak, has a mustache, wears an old Norwegian sweater, and is a classic anti-hero, a sensitive loser type. Instead of building a house and becoming a father, he sits in a sparsely furnished back room in a bleak city with a cup of St. John's Wort tea and writes funny stories.
At some point, his family realizes that he doesn't age. While his friends grow older, take on responsibilities, buy cars, conceive children, and work, Mitmannsgruber is stuck in time. He wants to remain in his mid-20s forever. He keeps postponing adulthood until it becomes unattainable and out of reach. And then he packs his things. Without a goal in sight, he travels through the stages of Austria and Germany. He appears on television, wins awards, and receives anonymously sent underwear.
Can art save the disoriented ne'er-do-well? Can the disoriented ne'er-do-well possibly save art? "The strange case of Benedikt Mitmannsgruber" is the grand fate of a young anti-hero and the people he encounters in his life: he finds love, meets conspiracy theorists, gets disappointed, has to isolate and learns what is of timeless significance: his dog, his girlfriend, and avocado spread.
"Those who could escape from the revolving door of life in the Mühlviertel to study the small border trade with blueberries to the Czech Republic, in order to then stoically sink Jörg Haider as an albino python in the toilet - those who constantly sharpen their own supposed naivete with malice deserve the executioner's axe." (Jury statement Passauer Scharfrichterbeil 2022)
Hallo, ich bin Maya.
