Lemminge I: Arkadien

The most important of Michael Haneke's early works is a sweeping social drama about the deadlock of the first post-war generation. In the first part, the generation gap is captured through a gritty coming-of-age story a la Haneke.

Synopsis

Autumn 1959 in Austria. Five young people between the ages of 17 and 18 are trying to make a life for themselves in the repressive atmosphere of their town. But all of them are tormented for different reasons: one person has a bourgeois family and has nothing to miss, but the parents no longer speak to each other. A young girl gets pregnant by a boy she doesn't love. Another young student has an affair with his teacher's wife.