Filmzuckerl

Country: A | Year: 2025 | Duration: 87 minutes
Director: Marie Luise Lehner | Cast: Siena Popović, Mariya Menner, Jessica Paar, Alessandro Scheibner, Alperen Köse, Kathrin Resetarits

About the film: Anna is new in the class at the prestigious school in the first district of Vienna. She comes from Floridsdorf, while the other students in the class come from different income backgrounds. Anna's mother Isolde is deaf. And Anna's Ralph Lauren sweater is fake. What is real, however, is her new friend Mara, and the shared realization: There is no place for shame in life.
Marie Luise Lehner's feature film debut tells a story about relationships, origins, transformations, and young people who have no idea yet but already know everything they need for the future – a coming-of-age story, radically tender.
Marie Luise Lehner worked with children who knew each other and had fun, casting people with and without disabilities, as well as LGBTQIA+ individuals. She understands that diversity is a lived reality, which is also reflected in the brilliant soundtrack that the director and screenwriter, who has experience with punk bands, curated with tracks from Tami T, Gata Fiera, Pop:sch, Enesi M, Xing, Klitclique, and Bipolar Feminin.

The Filmzuckerl association presents "When You Are Afraid, You Take Your Heart in Your Mouth and Smile" on Wednesday, December 10, 2025, at 8:30 PM and on Thursday, December 11, 2025, at 6:15 PM at the Filmbühne Waidhofen/Ybbs in the original German version with German subtitles for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals.