The Waldheim Waltz

"What I remember best are the scenes I shot myself." Thirty years later, with the birth of "alternative facts", Ruth Beckermann goes back to her archives and finds this footage from 1986. Back then, she was keeping record and protesting at the same time. This dual position gave rise to this incredible and militant investigation where notions of truth and responsibility play a central role. Analysing the revelations about this Austrian candidate with his nightmarishly long hands, Beckermann scrutinises the stand taken by the Austrian political class and the heated debates in the streets, and takes us back to the uncertainty and stupefaction of those weeks. As well as shedding light on Waldheim’s past, the film explores Austria and how it dealt with its Nazi involvement to rebuild itself after the war.

Charlène Dinhut
Programmer and curator