Struggle
Struggle is set in contemporary Austria close to the border between East and West and hence between wealth and poverty. Ewa, a young Polish woman, hustles from one job to the next – picking strawberries, working in a poultry slaughterhouse, scrubbing the swimming pools of the rich. Her existence is stripped to the level of subsistence and driven by the hope of finding better prospects for her and her little daughter. In the second part of the film, a recently divorced Viennese real estate agent begins haunting swingers’ bars, hoping to fill the emptiness that reverberates through his new life. He does not have Ewa’s financial anxiety, but he wrestles with a failed marriage and painful alienation from his daughter. Both Ewa and Marold are physically vulnerable – Ewa due to her precarious ability to provide for her material needs, Marold because his stultifying isolation drives him to exploit his body in order to feel. When they meet, their desperation carries them to even greater extremes.
© Struggle Films, KGP Filmprduktion
World premiere: Festival de Cannes 2003 – Un Certain Regard
2003
Torino Film Festival (Torino, Italy)
Cipputi Award
Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis (Saarbrücken, Germany)
Best Screenplay
Saarländischer Rundfunk & ZDF Award
Kiev Molodist International Film Festival (Kiev, Ukraine)
FIPRESCI Award
Diagonale. Festival des österreichischen Films (Graz, Austria
Best Camera
Umbria Film Festival (Montone, Italy)
Spezial Jury Mention
2003
Bratislava International Film Festival (Bratislava, Slovakia)
Thessaloniki International Film Festival (Thessaloniki, Greece)
Gijón International Film Festival (Gijón, Spain)
Torino Film Festival (Turino, Italy)
Stockholm International Film Festival (Stockholm, Sweden)
Kiev Molodist International Film Festival (Kiev, Ukraine)
BFI London Film Festival (London, UK)
Internationalen Hofer Filmtage (Hof, Germany)
Festival Résonances au Magic Cinema (Paris, France)
São Paulo International Film Festival (São Paulo, Brasil)
Mostra de Valencia (Valencia, Spain)
Haifa International Film Festival (Haifa, Israel)
Gent Film Fest (Ghent, Belgium)
Warsaw Film Festival (Warsaw, Poland)
Busan International Fim Festival (Busan, South Korea)
Vancouver International Film Festival (Vancouver, Canada)
Figueira da Foz Film Festival (Figueira da Foz, Portugal)
Toronto International Film Festival (Toronto, Canada)
Telluride Film Festival (Telluride, USA)
Gwangju International Film Festival (Gwangju, South Korea)
Sarajevo Film Festival (Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Motovun Film Festival (Motovu, Croatia)
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic)
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival (Las Palmas, Gran Canaria)
Cannes Film Festival (Cannes, France)
2004
International Film Festival of India (Goa, India)
Barcelona International Film Festival (Barcelona, Spain)
Riga International Film Festival (Riga, Latvia)
San Francisco International Women's Film Festival (San Francisco, USA)
Pluk de Nacht (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Lubuskie Film Summer (Lagow, Poland)
Nisa Film Festival (Germany, Czech Republic, Poland)
Sochi Film Festival (Sochi, Russia)
Barcelona Women Film Festival (Barcelona, Spanien)
Pink Screens Film Festival (Brussels, Belgium)
Flying Broom International Women's Film Festival (Ankara, Turkey)
Popoli e Religioni - Terni Film Festival (Terni, Italy)
Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Film Festival (Minneapolis, USA)
Festroia International Film Festival (Setúbal, Portugal)
Singapore International Film Festival (Singapore)
Istanbul International Film Festival (Istanbul, Turkey)
BAFICI (Buenos Aires, Brasil)
Alta Langa Film Festival (Monesiglio, Italy)
Durango Independent Film Festival (Durango, USA)
Diagonale. Festival des österreichischen Films (Graz, Austria)
Mar del Plata International Film Festival (Mar del Plata, Argentina)
Sofia International Film Festival (Sofia, Bulgaria)
FEST (Belgrade, Serbia)
Fantasporto (Porto, Portugal)
Santa Barbara International Film (Santa Barbara, USA)
Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis (Saarbrücken, Germany)
International Film Festival Prague – FEBIOFEST (Prague, Czech Republic)
International Film Festival Rotterdam (Rotterdam, Netherlands)
Tromsø International Film Festival (Tromø, Norway)
Trieste Film Festival (Trieste, Italy)