Introduzione all'oscuro

Argentine filmmaker Gastón Solnicki's homage to Hans Hurch, who for 20 years was director of the Viennale film festival and in 2015 was on the jury for the Tiger Competition. In July 2017 he unexpectedly died of a heart attack. Solnicki succeeds in giving this rhythmic, associative tour of Hurch’s cosmopolitan Viennese culture, beautifully shot by Zama cameraman Rui Poças, a moving, cinematographic and universal meaning that is far more than a personal reaction to the sorrow about the loss of his ‘flamboyant friend’.

Yet everywhere, from Café Engländer where you can still order a 'Hurch' (triple espresso), to the tailor who made his suits (which he wore until they fell apart), you think that the occasionally eccentric Hurch could suddenly turn up again. In reality, we only hear him on the soundtrack, while he comments on the editing of Solnicki's family chronicle, Papirosen (2011): "Nice. Half nice. Very half nice."