Le formiche di Mida

Phaethon asks to ride the sun chariot for a day. Helios tries to dissuade his son – but in vain. When the night ends, Phaethon mounts his father's precious sun chariot. The four horses race off but soon, control of the chariot is lost. Phaethon leaves the daily route between Heaven and Earth, triggering a catastrophe of universal proportions.

Thus commences Le formiche di Mida, the latest delightful-cum-insightful revelation by Edgar Honetschläger, an auteur close to the heart of IFFR since his very beginnings. A restless traveller, he has made films in Japan, the United States and Italy as well as his native Austria, going round and round between these places and spaces, always trying out new aesthetics for things he hasn't said yet – which makes each new film of his a surprise. If there's one thing you can safely say about his works, especially his fiction features, it's that they're a gorgeous feast for the eyes and ears – but maybe never quite as rich as here, in a film that celebrates the beauty of life, the generous splendour of nature, the ripe kindness of the sun and also the silliness while good-willingness of those strange jesters under it we call humans. And, need we mention that one of the film's narrators is a philosopher donkey? Such wonders...

– Olaf Möller