Page - 79 - in Siting Futurity - The “Feel Good” Tactical Radicalism of Contemporary Culture in and around Vienna

79 conVerting Kebab and currency into community As no other district in Vienna could, Ottakring distils the social implications of “successful” gentrification in an ironically economical manner, something Riebl expertly channels in Plan- et Ottakring. The problem of the property market is depicted as the distance between Frau Jahn and her extortionist practices, which are depicted in visual terms as sado-masochistic, and Dis- ko’s more humane, hedonistic ethos. The solution that Sammy and Valerie represent is that of a next generation, which needs to overcome national (German versus Austrian) divides while at the same time standing up to the onslaught of what one might call, paraphrasing Sharon Zukin, “gentrification by cappuccino.” While the culture-clash comedies also demonstrate an aware- ness of intergenerational renewal, the cultural solutions they offer in terms of either accepting or rejecting gendered bodily markers such as head scarves or foreskin pale in comparison to Riebl’s film’s advice to become informed about the workings of finance capitalism so as to steel oneself against the negative ef- fects its seductive workings can have on the everyday life in one’s neighborhood. Serving up coffee with credit in English is not only a way of translating the global into the local but also a way of protecting the local by mobilizing the communal politics that have long been at home in Ottakring rather than the harmful identitarian politics that characterize culture clashes. It is also a way of helping the district transcend its reputation as a logical place for culture-clash comedies. Riebl’s film demonstrates an awareness that Ottakring has gone global: [i]m Wechselspiel zwischen demographischer und sozio- ökonomischer Entwicklung des Brunnenviertels, top down- und bottom up-Interventionen sowie dem politischen bzw. öffentlichen Diskurs konnte eine sich gegenseitig verstärken- de Dynamik entstehen. Diese Entwicklung führt zu einem Imagewandel des Viertels, wodurch Zuwandererkulturen als positiver Aspekt urbaner Entwicklung wahrgenommen werden und das Brunnenviertel eine Neupositionierung im gesamtstädtischen Gefüge erfährt sowie als identitätsverän- dernder Faktor wirkt.