Documentary filmmaker Claudia Müller, known for her various film portraits dedicated especially to international female artists, such as Austrian experimental filmmaker Valie Export, American neo-conceptual artist Jenny Holzer and German actress Susanne Lothar, is now working on a documentary about Austrian author Elfriede Jelinek. Elfriede Jelinek – Language Unleashed will offer an insight into Jelinek’s artistic approach to language and the creation of her work in a contemporary context.

German actors Sandra Hüller, Ilse Ritter, Stefanie Reinsperger and Martin Wuttke have agreed to collaborate on the project, and will be heard and seen reciting texts written by the 2004 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Furthermore, Austrian DoP Christine A Maier, who on 21 May won the Deutscher Kamerapreis in the fiction-film category for her camerawork on Jasmila Žbanić’s Oscar-nominated Quo Vadis, Aida? [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Jasmila Žbanić
scheda film], is on board as the cinematographer.

The film, which is being produced by Germany’s CALA Filmproduktion (Martina Haubrich) together with Austria’s Plan-C Filmproduktion (Claudia Wohlgenannt), has received financial support from the Vienna Film Fund, The Austrian Film Institute, Filmstandort Austria and the BKM (the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media). Filming started in December 2020 and wrapped earlier this year. The documentary is scheduled to be released on the occasion of the author’s 75th birthday this autumn.

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