Page - 113 - in Siting Futurity - The “Feel Good” Tactical Radicalism of Contemporary Culture in and around Vienna

113 Hardly Homemad(e) neighbors: “Von einer großen Reise mit einer großen Kamera zurückgekehrt, nehme ich meine kleine Kamera mit auf kleine Reisen, nicht weiter als vor meiner Haustür mitten in Wien” [“Having arrived back from a large trip with a large camera, I take my small camera on a small trip, no further than in front of my door in the middle of Vienna”]. As the opening conversa- tion among the three elderly Jewish gentlemen makes clear, her goal is not, as one of them immediately supposes, to depict how “deppert” [“stupid”] they are, a subtle or maybe not-so-subtle dig at Schlingensief, but rather how well they get along, even with Iranian hotel-owner Djavad Alam, the “Araber” who runs the Café Bar Butterfly across the street. Unlike Schlingenschief, whose resolute focus on the Austrian political situation blames them all equally for allowing something so terrible to happen, Beckermann does not ask residents for their political views until the last twenty minutes of the almost ninety-minute documen- tary, preferring to establish their characters and lifestyles first. She leaves us with what Christina Guenther calls “a final ges- ture of friendship, however flawed or uneasy” (Guenther 2004, 42), namely the question of whether being good neighbors is enough in a Vienna, where “das ganze Leben ist ein Theater [all of life is theater]” and “alles ist vergänglich [everything is fleet- ing]” as the main character, Adolf “Adi” Doft, muses in the final conversation with his Iranian neighbor. The final scene shows Doft shutting up his tailor shop and going home for the even- ing. Young people pass by; a young mother pushes a carriage and a young man rides a bicycle. Doft encounters Alam, who reveals his vanity by removing his glasses for the camera and commenting a bit derisively on Doft’s attractiveness to the cam- era women, namely Beckermann and her assistant.15 The con- versation that ensues illustrates the challenges of intercultural relations. Alam’s attitude towards Doft is condescending, while Doft responds good-naturedly but with some reserve. Alam seems to have been asked to make small talk for the camera. 15 Christina Kaindl-Hönig is credited as the “Regie-Assistenz,” which fits which Doft addressing them as “Mädls” [“girls”].