Sentimental Fail Club

In a Viennese suburb, two teenage sisters reenact their parents’ stolen diaries with random party guests. An imaginative and musical journey through teenage eyes into the abyss of the adult world.

A house so messy that it’s hard to imagine adults live here. Two teenage sisters, Chili (16) and Jolo (14), long to break free and move to L.A. While rehearsing for a living room concert, they discover their parents’ secret diaries. Captivated by the unfiltered and innermost emotions within, the sisters usher in neighbours and strangers to stage impromptu theatre pieces based on the diary entries, casting themselves as the characters. We dive into a colourful, pop-cultural world that reflects the perspective of unfulfilled teenagers raised on smartphones and TV. Each of the four chapters is a cautionary tale about how not to live life, exploring the risks of different vices: fakeness, manipulativeness, fragile masculinity, and lethargy.

We follow their parents life from how they met, their first child, to an extramarital affair and the depressing present – traveling through Venice, Nashville, Istanbul and back to Austria – exploring a world full of romanticism, camp, emotions, and humor. But behind the big emotions and grand gestures lies a void, a sadness that our anti-hero parent protagonists do not know how to fill. They unsuccessfully search for a better life. The film contrasts the longing for freedom with the question of responsibility—for others and for oneself.