Today the award-winning feature film “Vera” by the Viennese director duo Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel is being released in cinemas throughout Austria and will be celebrated in the presence of leading actress Vera Gemma on January 12th as part of a gala screening in the Vienna Stadtkino in the Künstlerhaus. In January, a retrospective with selected films will be dedicated to Covi and Frimmel there, while their photographic works will be shown in the exhibition “Über die Randen” in the Künstlerhaus.
Delicate character and milieu studies
Covi and Frimmel are known for their semi-documentary film projects, most of which are based on years of research. Due to the growing closeness to her protagonists, sensitive character and milieu studies succeed that appear equally unvarnished and poetic.
The current work “Vera”, which opened the Viennale in 2022 and was awarded at the Venice Film Festival for best director and best actress in the Orizzonti sidebar, fits in seamlessly here. Title heroine Vera Gemma walks between glamor and abyss in the shadow of her famous deceased father, the spaghetti western actor Giuliano Gemma. She drifts through Roman high society, tired of countless cosmetic surgeries and superficial relationships. The film is driven by the filmmakers’ respect for their main character and genuine interest in Vera. Covi and Frimmel are interested in people on the fringes, in the outcasts, in the artists of life.
Exhibition “Beyond the Edges”
Less well known is the director duo’s photographic work, which can not only be seen as a preliminary study for their films, but also follows independent approaches and artistic concepts – although the use of analogue film and photo material represents a parallel. The show can be seen for the first time in Vienna until January 22nd.
