Film|Neu 2018: The Migrumpies (Die Migrantigen)

Austria, 2017, 95 min., Director: Arman T. Riahi, Screenplay: Aleksandar Petrovic, Faris Rahoma, Cast: Faris Rahoma, Aleksandar Petrovic, Doris Schretzmayer, Distribution: AFC – Austrian Films

• 38. Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis 2017 (Audience Award)
• Nashville Film Festival 2017 (Audience Award)

Benny and Marko are two Viennese guys with immigrant backgrounds, although this aspect of their identities is easily hidden. So easily that they are hardly perceived as foreigners – if not for Benny’s black hair. Confronted with ambitious TV director Weizenhuber, who is looking for protagonists for her TV documentary series about the ethnically mixed suburb Rudolfsgrund, they pretend to be petty criminals and hard-nosed migrants with a penchant for cunning and craftiness. To keep the lie from unraveling, they create a second identity for themselves made up of clichés and stereotypes. And while these clichés fulfill expectations and make the show a success, they are simultaneously confronted with true stories of immigration – including their own. A “politically incorrect” comedy about modern clichés, false identities and “real” foreigners – whatever that means!

Arman T. Riahi (b. 1981) was born in Iran and grew up in Vienna, Austria, where he created his first short films as a teenager. He studied media technologies and worked as a screen- and graphic designer in London & Vienna. In 2005, he started in television as director of the infamous television shows Sendung ohne Namen and Sunshine Airlines for the ORF (Austrian Broadcasting Corporation). In the same year, his short film Elektronikschrott won the nationwide short film award “Shorts On Screen.” His first cinema documentary Schwarzkopf (Dark Head, 2011) won the Audience Choice Award at the National Austrian Film Festival Diagonale, and the Special Jury Mention Award at the Docudays Beirut International Documentary Festival.