PORTRAIT EINER ROTHAARIGEN

In this exhilarating and touching film, Petra Wallner and Josef Mayerhofer take us inside the home of a Bavarian "pop legend". Lotte Lenz, "the ageless woman", lives in a little village deep in the heart of the Bavarian province. Her entire life has been dedicated to kitsch and eternal youth. With great sensitivity the filmmakers accompany this peculiar character through the last months of her life. With a delicate attention to detail, they immerse us in Lotte Lenz's bizarre world. Everything is red in Lotte Lenz’s house except for a white rug – she has red varnished nails and a red wardrobe with a huge assortment of clothes. The stools in the bar, even the velvet cover of the telephone, are red. On the walls we see portraits of Bavarian King Ludwig, of the Pope and the Statue of Liberty. There is a collection of stuffed cats in the corridor and one live Persian cat who doesn't move much itself.

The directors remain faithful to their protagonist throughout the film, and the viewer can sense a strong relationship of trust that has been established between the filmmakers and their subject. And at the end, the film brings a touch of Hollywood to the deepest Bavarian countryside.