Directed by: Jessica Hausner
Script: Jessica Hausner
Producer: Philippe Bober, Susanne Marian, Michael Seeber, Heinz Stussak, Antonin Svoboda
Production company: Coop 99, Essential Filmproduktion, Prisma Film
Cinematography: Martin Gschlacht
Editing: Karin Hartusch
Cast: Barbara Osika, Christoph Bauer, Peter Fiala

Format: video
Running time: 80'

Synopsis
For her directorial debut, Jessica Hausner has created an honest and revealing portrait of Rita, a wilful and unruly teenager on the verge of womanhood. Her sexual awakening leads her to intimacy with a schoolboy too young and a bus driver, too old. Her efforts to break out of her solitude and claustrophobic environment isolate her even more, until one day she crosses the line...

Awards and Festivals
Viennale 2001 - FIPRESCI Prize Special Mention, Vienna Film Award
Chicago International Film Festival 2001
European Film Awards 2001
Max Ophüls Festival 2001

Directors Biography
Jessica Hausner, born in Austria in 1972, studied Directing at the Vienna Film Academy. Her first short film, Flora (1996), winner of the Leopard of Tomorrow Award at Locarno, was followed by Inter-view (1999), her graduation film, which in turn won the Special Prize granted by the Cinéfondation Jury in Cannes. That same year she founded her own production company, coop99, with Barbara Albert, Antonin Svoboda and Martin Gschlacht. Her first two features, Lovely Rita (2001) and Hotel (2004), were selected by Cannes Festival for its Un Certain Regard section. Lourdes (2009), a film ruminating on the ambivalence of miracle cures, was invited to compete at Venice that same year, carrying off the Fipresci Prize. The same film also bagged the Best Actress Award for Sylvie Testud at the European Film Awards.

Location and screening schedule: ZAGREB DANCE CENTRE, Friday, October 19th at 20.30