Benedikt Mitmannsgruber - 1996

As if out of nowhere, Benedikt Mitmannsgruber turned 30 overnight.
Surrounded by forests, cows, and farms, he reflects on the past few years.

In the attic of his parents’ house, he discovers a yellowed album containing his family tree.
For Benedikt Mitmannsgruber, this marks the beginning of a whirlwind journey through his family’s past and his own absurd everyday life.

The journey begins in the early 20th century in a small village on the Czech border. There, Benedikt Mitmannsgruber’s great-grandparents decide to have 15 children. Benedikt Mitmannsgruber’s parents are born in the 1960s. They spend their childhood next to the Iron Curtain in the deepest Austrian countryside. No one really knows whether that small strip of land actually belongs to the Czech Republic or to Austria. In the 1990s, the Iron Curtain falls, and Benedikt Mitmannsgruber’s parents decide to have a son. He is born into a world where he never quite fits in, but which he nevertheless loves, with all its quirky inhabitants and peculiarities.

A tribute to growing up in the middle of nowhere. A declaration of love for the forgotten backwater towns. A journey into one’s own past. A whimsical look at our society and a world that has gone off the rails.

Benedikt Mitmannsgruber’s third show, “1996,” is dedicated to his two parents and four grandparents, who—despite a difficult upbringing at the end of the world with hardly any prospects—shaped him into the Benedikt Mitmannsgruber he is today!

Director: Jürgen Marschal