Actually, it was pretty clear that sooner or later Ulrich Seidl would land in the basement. In all of his prior films the Austrian has explored all things esoteric, grotesque, and hidden, what people keep to themselves, places and feelings, or places where they are the most vulnerable. Some of Seidl's themes include the close relationships people have with their dogs in ANIMAL LOVE; hidden longings and desires in JESUS, YOU KNOW; or the search for love in Kenya by a 50-year-old Austrian woman in his trilogy PARADISE: LOVE, FAITH, HOPE. In his latest film: the basement as a symbol of all things hidden. In this documentary Seidl introduces the contents of several middle-class Austrians' cellars. There is the shooting range cellar where patriotic Austrians bluster on about Islam and a disabled opera singer practices during the breaks. There is the party cellar, where not one party has been held since the children left home, there is also the big game cellar where even the woman of the house must wear a leopard pattern and the Nazi cellar where the owner's most prized possession and wedding gift hang in the corner: a oil picture of Hitler. A fascinating melancholy emanates from the carefully arranged basement scenes in the first half of the film. The second half of the film shows mainly sex fantasies that play out in people's basements. The cellar, the place which, in the first half of the film, represents unfulfilled desires, is now the place where sexual fantasies of all sorts are practiced. But what is abysmal is the audience's reaction to the rather friendly sadomasochists.

Hendrike Bake