JESUS VON OTTAKRING

A folk play in the guise of an underground musical that is bursting with historical references and cross-references and shows Austria as it would have liked to see itself: as an island of the blessed, where laborers are proud to be allowed to work themselves to death and where the word “revolution” is known only from the news. Until one day, along comes a man with long hair who puts new ideas into the minds of young people and shows them that their lives could be different. This man, Ferdinand Novacek, also known as “Jesus of Ottakring,” remains invisible throughout the film, but his work does not, which arouses the anger of the population. It is imperative that he and his gang be stopped and order restored. A very special kind of passion play starts, with resurrection and beatification at the very beginning ...
Wilhelm Pellert’s adaptation of the eponymous play became one of the major Austrian films of the 1970s and exudes a touch of anarchy in every nook and cranny – including snappy, biting songs. (fw)

Wilhelm Pellert: JESUS VON OTTAKRING (1976)