Feature Film, Historical Drama

starring Hannelore Elsner, Franziska Weisz and Nike Seitz

There‘s a very good reason why you should let sleeping dogs lie, as 9-year-old Johanna discovers. Growing up a good Catholic girl in the provincial Austrian town of Wels in the late 1960s, she learns from her grandmother her family‘s secret: they are Jewish. Life now starts to change, uncomfortably so: the caretaker bullies her, the religion teacher ignores her and her traumatised mother stops talking to people. Both older women know exactly who were the very worst Nazis back then. After the war they reinvented themselves as devout Catholics. Johanna, however, is determined not to hide, she wants to be proud of her heritage and now becomes Hanna. But the „sleeping dogs“ are awake, they are starting to bark and they still have their teeth.

"Hannas sleeping dogs" is based on the novel "Schlafende Hunde" by Elisabeth Escher, in which she recounts her true life experience. Writer-director Andreas Gruber grew up with her in Wels in the 1960s and is thus also personally familiar with the story‘s milieu.

Awards

Director and Screenplay:
Andreas Gruber

Producers:
Fritjof Hohagen, Andreas Gruber

Cast:
Hannelore Elsner, Franziska Weisz, Nike Seitz, Johannes Silberschneider

Commissioning Editor:
Hubert von Spreti, Heinrich Mis

DOP:
Martin Gressmann

Auss:
Oliver Hoese, Bettina Zirngiebl

Costumes:
Tina Keiml-Sorge

TV Networks:
BR, ORF

Distributor:
Alpenrepublik