PAST SCREENINGS
with Lila Schwarzenberg
12.06.2023
host Bernhard Flieher
with Lila Schwarzenberg and Lukas Sturm
6.11.2022 | 16:00
Filmfestival Radstadt Das Zentrum
with Lila Schwarzenberg and Lukas Sturm
5.11.2022 | 18:00
6.11.2022 | 11:15
Austrian Directors Association Screening
host Barbara Windtner
with Lila Schwarzenberg and Lukas Sturm
24.10.2022 | 20:15
20.10.2022
host Priska Wörl
with Lila Schwarzenberg and Lukas Sturm
10.10.2022 | 20:00
host Maria Motter
with Lila Schwarzenberg and Lukas Sturm
27.09.2022 | 18:00
host Karin Schiefer
with Lila Schwarzenberg and Lukas Sturm
26.09.2022 | 19:30
host Alexander Syllaba
with Lila Schwarzenberg and Lukas Sturm
16.09.2022 | 20:00
host Alexander Syllaba
with Lukas Sturm
15.09.2022 | 20:00
host Julia Pühringer
with Lila Schwarzenberg and Lukas Sturm
14.09.2022 | 20:00
host Doris Priesching
with Lila Schwarzenberg and Lukas Sturm
12.09.2022 | 19:30
09.09.2022
ORF cinema premiere Urania Kino
host Birgit Fenderl
07.09.2022
Worldpremiere Karlovy Vary Film Festival
05.07.2022
SYNOPSIS
"You're not there to be happy."
"You're not there to be happy," says the father to his daughter at the end of a documentary film that tells the unusual story of Lila Schwarzenberg and her father Karl. Over a period of five years, daughter and father meet again and again to talk at the places that shaped both of their lives. In Prague and at Orlik Castle in southern Bohemia, but also in Vienna and in Murau in Styria. Over the years, the conversations explore all corners of their shared history. Of a father as a contemporary witness of the 20th century, whose childhood was marked by dispossession and flight, and who later became one of the most remarkable politicians in Europe after the Second World War. A statesman, aristocrat and revolutionary in equal measure. His daughter's story begins as that of a girl growing up in a family tradition dominated by hereditary princes and men. One who resists etiquette and aristocratic predicates, later slips into drug addiction - then gets clean and builds a life in London, leaving the shadows of the past behind. During the course of filming, Lila Schwarzenberg also repeatedly confronts her co-director Lukas Sturm's questions about her own history. The film shows how Lila repeatedly tries to overcome the distance to her seemingly overpowering father. The result is a highly intimate portrait of two people who are both familiar and strangers to each other. Against the backdrop of a turbulent family history marked by strokes of fate, both make a sincere effort to find a way to each other. My Father, the Prince tells the story of many daughters, sons, fathers and mothers and their mutual, often doomed desire for recognition, appreciation and closeness.
KARL SCHWARZENBERG
Karl Schwarzenberg, born in Prague in 1937, has an enigmatic biography that could hardly be more contradictory. Born as the heir into one of the oldest and wealthiest aristocratic families in Europe, he was forced to emigrate from former Czechoslovakia to Austria as a child, when under communist rule the family was expropriated and expelled. This was a defining live shaping moment for the child, Karl Schwarzenberg. Growing up in Austria, with the duty of being an heir removed, he dreamed of becoming a journalist. But life had other plans. His uncle and head of the Austrian Schwarzenberg family line did not have a male heir and so Karl Schwarzenberg was adopted in his twenties to become head of the family and to run the family estate in Austria and Germany. He fulfilled this privileged yet difficult role, but his heart belonged to politics, human rights and his country of birth. The Velvet Revolution in 1989 gave him the chance to return to his homeland and shape the destiny of his beloved country alongside Vaclav Havel and later as foreign secretary and chairman of the party TOP 09. Although visiting Austria often, the Czech Republic remained his home to this day.
FILMMAKERS
LILA SCHWARZENBERG & LUKAS STURM
Directors
Lukas Sturm is a producer, director and author living in Vienna. For more than 20 years he has devoted himself with great passion to the art form of cinematic storytelling. He thinks and works across genres, always driven to combine quality content with gripping stories. Together with Lila Schwarzenberg and their production company, neulandfilm, he develops and produces numerous film and TV projects.
Lila Schwarzenberg studied film at NYU and anthropology and media at London University. She started her career in Vienna but lived in London for more than 15 years. She directed commercials and pop promos, has worked as a journalist, and gained extensive experience in the development and production of TV formats as a producer. She is the mother of five children and runs neulandfilm together with Lukas Sturm. For the production of My Father, The Prince, she found herself in front of the camera for the very first time.
THOMAS BRUNNER & GERNOT SCHAFFLER
Producers
Sabotage Films was founded in Vienna in 1998 by Thomas Brunner and Gernot Schaffler. Sabotage's work ranges from television commercials, web specials, short films, music videos, feature films and documentaries to high-end art shows. The company has won multiple awards at advertising festivals from Cannes to New York.Sabotage Films motion pictures and documentaries: Havana Marking's SMASH & GRAB, Daniel McCabe's THIS IS CONGO, Phil Cox's THE BENGALI DETECTIVE & THE LOVE HOTEL and Danfung Dennis' Oscar-nominated Sundance winner HELL AND BACK AGAIN. Furthermore, Gernot Schaffler served as associate producer on Ron Howard's RUSH and Thomas Brunner and Gernot Schaffler are Producers on KLAMMER - Chasing the Line, Feature Film/Biopic 100 minutes.
MONIKA WILLI
Editor
Monika Willi is an acclaimed and multi award-winning Austrian editor. She is mostly known for her work with director Michael Haneke, for whom she edited the award-winning films The White Ribbon and Amour. She won the Austrian Filmpreis on numerous occasions and was nominated for the German Filmpreis and the Cesar. Monika Willi is member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
THOMAS VONDRAK
Editor
Thomas Vondrak is a Viennese based editor who has worked on multiple award winning projects for TV and Film with Lukas Sturm. Over the years they have formed a special relationship which is full of trust and respect which allows them to challenge each other creatively whenever necessary. Thomas started his career working for acclaimed Viennese pop promo directors Dolezal & Rossacher also known as the Torpedo Twins.
WALTER WERZOWA
Composer
Walter Werzowa is a musician, multiple award-winning composer and highly innovative music producer. He was born in Vienna but lived and worked in Los Angeles for more than 20 years. He has scored movies for Steven Spielberg, Wim Wenders, and wrote acclaimed documentary soundtracks The Devil and Daniel Johnston, JT LeRoy. Walter Werzowa returned to Vienna in 2020 with his family and is currently working on Stardust Cowboy.
PETER MORGAN
Executive Producer
Peter Morgan is one of Britain’s most influential writers and producers for stage, screen and film who has won a host of international awards including Golden Globe, British Independent Film and Evening Standard British Film Awards. The award-winning and Tony-nominated play Frost/Nixon received critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic before being adapted into a multi–Academy Award-nominated film of the same name. The film garnered five Oscar Award nominations, including Best Screenplay. Morgan's many other film credits include the award-winning The Queen, The Last King of Scotland, The Damned United and Rush. His extensive television credits include The Lost Honour of Christopher Jeffries, the critically acclaimed The Deal – the first part of Morgan’s Tony Blair Trilogy (BAFTA Award for Best Drama) - The Special Relationship and Longford. Peter wrote the award-winning West End play, The Audience, starring Helen Mirren and most recently, The Crown, a multi award-winning drama series for Netflix.
KAROL MARTESKO FENSTER
Executive Producer
Karol is Partner/COO of Abramorama and Chief Content Officer of Thought Engine Partners. He is a producer on Benji & Jono Bergmann’s Mau and Gelato, Thomas Wirthensohn’s Sacrament and Homme Less (’14 DOCNYC Grand Jury Award), Maura Axelrod’s Maurizio Cattelan – Be Right Back, and an executive producer on Jessie Deeter’s Hoof Dreams, Steven Rosenbaum and Pamela Yoder’s The Outsider, Adam Schomer’s series The Road To Dharma – Riders of the Himalayas, Daniel McCabe’s This Is Congo, Leslie Iwerk’s Ella Brennan: Commanding The Table, Amy Benson & Scott Squires’ Drawing The Tiger, Phil Cox’s Love Hotel and The Bengali Detective (’13 Grierson Documentary Award), Noel Dernesch & Moritz Springer’s Journey To Jah (’13 Zurich Film Festival Audience Award), Havana Marking's Smash & Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers, and James Smith’s Floored. He was the production executive on Emmett Malloy’s Big Easy Express (2013 Grammy Award) and Harry Belafonte’s Sing Your Song (’12 NAACP Image Award) and Executive Producer of Danfung Dennis’s Hell and Back Again (’13 Grierson Documentary Award, 2012 Academy Award Best Documentary Nominee, and 2011 Sundance World Documentary Grand Jury and Cinematography Award Winner). Previously, Karol was the President of Film for Michael Cohl’s S2BN Entertainment and Head of Film at Chris Blackwell's Palm Pictures. Karol has produced over 25 television and satellite broadcast music programs, multiple Webby Award-winning programs including wetheeconomy.com and focusforwardfilms.com, and he co-founded FILMMAKER Magazine, RES Magazine, and the media content enterprises indiewire, cinelan, and conditionone. (www.karol.com)
CREDITS
Written & directed by
LUKAS STURM & LILA SCHWARZENBERG
Editors
THOMAS VONDRAK
MONA WILLI
MICHAEL INGRAM
Producers
GERNOT SCHAFFLER
THOMAS BRUNNER
Associated Producer
RAIMUND CARL
Music
WALTER WERZOWA
Executive Producers
PETER MORGAN
KAROL MARTESKO-FENSTER
Production
MATTHIAS HORNGACHER
LUKAS MÜLLER-THIES
ROLAND RÜSCHENSCHMIDT
WOLFGANG TRAGSEILER
Camera
CHRISTOPH BECK
DULI DIEMANSBERGER
MIKE FRIED
STEFAN HASELGRUBER
NINO LEITNER
MATTHIAS MEISSL
ROSANNA STARK
CHRISTIAN STOLZ
RICHARD WAGNER
Camera Assistants
MICHAEL DOBERER
JAN JANCIK
MICHAEL MÜLLNER
Photographs by
TOMKI NĚMEC
PEDRO KRAMREITER
ONDŘEJ NĚMEC
NORA SCHUSTER
OLDŘICH ŠKÀCHA
DIT
JAN JANCIK
Sound
SINA GHAREHKANI
JAKOB KLINGEBIEL
FRANZ MORITZ
DIETER NEUHAUS
NORBERT PICHLER
ALEXANDER RÖMICH
Production Assistants
CHRISTOPH ADOLF
MARKUS BARTOSCH
FERDINAND HERWEI
ADRIAN HUTLE
KARL NEUBART
SOPHIE NEUMAYR
DAVID ÖSTERREICHER
SARA PERNIKARZ
Make Up
JENNY BLADEK
Lightning
DOMINIK DANNER
STEFAN NEMEC
JAKOB SLAVICEK
FERDINAND STOIBER
Props Master
JOHANNES SCHASCHL
Assistant Editors
MICHAEL DOBERER
JAN JANCIK
BERNHARD KOSCHIER
SABRINA JOKSIMOVIC
BARBARA FICHTINGER
VFX
MICHAEL DOBERER
JULIAN GRUMER
Motion Graphics
JULIAN GRUMER
Sound Postproduction
SONOBELLE RECORDINGS
BLAUTÖNE
MARX TONKOMBINAT
OVERDUB RECORDING STUDIOS
ERICH VODNANSKY
End Theme
WOLFRAM
Subtitles
TITRA FILMS
Translation
KIMI LUM
A coproduction with ORF
And supported by the Austrian Film Institute (ÖFI)
© 2021 All Rights Reserved - Sabotage Films & neulandfilm
Special thanks
TOMKI NĚMEC
The late Max Vrecer and his family for letting us use footage
from his Super8 Film “Kari, Vitti, Oscar”
Academia Superior – Institute for Future Studies
For letting us use footage from Surprise Factors Symposium 2014
Nadar Mansur of the Wanton Bishops
For letting us use the track “Fallen Angel”
David Černý
For letting us use his iconic Karel punk picture
Schwarzenberg Family Archive
Dipl. Ing. Heike Kellner
Archivar A.D. Wolfgang Wieland
Vaclav Havel Library