The Seventh Continent
Short description
The Seventh Continent follows Georg and Anna Schober, who live with their young daughter Eva in a townhouse in Linz, Austria. Georg manages a laboratory and Anna works as an optician in her parents' shop. Across three years, the film observes the family's daily routines: the radio alarm each morning, the same small gestures around brushing teeth and breakfast, the quiet distance between three people held together mainly by habit. Their life looks comfortable and unremarkable, disturbed only by minor troubles, yet beneath the surface calm they are preparing something destructive.
The film is Austrian director Michael Haneke's second feature, following Fraulein and preceding Benny's Video, with a screenplay by Haneke and Johanna Teicht. Veit Heiduschka produced. Birgit Doll, Dieter Berner and Leni Tanzer play the family, with supporting roles from Silvia Fenz, Robert Dietl and Georg Friedrich. It runs 107 minutes and was released in October 1989.
On IMDb the film holds a critics' rating of 7.2 out of 10 from six reviews, while on TMDB it has 7.5 out of 10 from 373 votes, indicating a small but appreciative audience. It belongs to the early stage of Haneke's career, before the international recognition that followed in the 1990s and 2000s.
What's left behind the scenes
- Before the film's premiere at the international Cannes Film Festival, director Michael Haneke predicted that the audience would be most shocked by two scenes in the film – the death of the goldfish when the aquarium is smashed, and when money is flushed down the toilet. The producer disagreed with him. He believed that the audience would genuinely feel sorry for the goldfish, but the reaction to the destruction of the money would be calm. Haneke turned out to be right.
- The film is based on true events.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
