Ein wilder Sommer - Die Wachausaga (2018)

In a town in the Wachau region of Lower Austria, a freer way of life is increasingly being felt by young people in the countryside in the early 1980s. Gender roles and the world of work are changing, for example. One day, the closure of the Glanzler family’s local factory, where many of the villagers work, is announced. This shakes the people’s previously secure-seeming plans for their lives and established structures, leaving the future uncertain. Anna is a student who travels between her university town and her hometown to help out at her uncle Schorsch’s newly opened inn. After womanizer Kurt Pichler has pursued her for a while, she agrees to an uncommitted relationship with him. When Anna finds out that Kurt is also seeing Elisabeth, who likewise travels between towns, and intends to marry her, Anna is shocked and realizes that she is not quite as indifferent to Kurt as she had initially thought. Anna’s friend Karin is in a relationship with Horst, after Kurt left her for Elisabeth. Having failed to find work, Kurt’s father, Helmuth, starts drinking and becomes increasingly aggressive and violent, beating his wife, Roswitha, so badly that she has to be hospitalized. Because he does not register with the employment office, his benefits are also cut off. Hoping to make up with Anna, Kurt goes to see her at the university in Innsbruck. After a summer festival, Anna and Kurt spend another night together. Franz, the mayor’s son, also makes advances toward Anna, and they go to the fire brigade festival together. Kurt, jealous of Franz, flies into a rage and attacks Anna. She then breaks off contact with him. Helmuth sets the factory on fire and then kills himself with a rifle. People in the village say that the fire was commissioned. Kurt, who repeatedly loses his jobs, attempts suicide, but Karin finds him in time. Some time later, Karin, Anna, and Kurt meet again. Karin is now pregnant and married to Horst; Elisabeth is pregnant by Kurt, and the two of them also plan to marry.