SUN, Oct. 7, 2018 @ 7.00 PM

Austria/ Germany 2017 – 97 min

Director: Barbara Albert

Cast: Maria Dragus, Devid Striesow, Lukas Miko

The year is 1777, and Vienna is in the midst of Mozart’s takeover as high society obsesses over new melodies and compositions. A small concert hall is enthralled by a young and blind harpsichordist with unabashed skill. That musician is the famed Maria Theresia von Paradis, whose story comes to life in this exquisitely detailed period piece from Austrian filmmaker Barbara Albert. Maria’s parents take her to doctor Frank Mesmer, the man who coined the term “animal magnetism,” in the hopes of curing her blindness. At first scared of her new environment, Maria finds safety and an empowering sense of self-worth insulated from society’s mockery about her disability. But as Maria’s health improvements appear dubious after a miraculous beginning and her skill falters, her newfound comfort is threatened as Mesmer is ostracized as a fraud. The film’s 18th century set design and costumes, as well as the classically driven score, leave no detail untouched. Maria Dragus (GRADUATION) is mesmerizing as Maria Theresia, who undergoes raw sensory overload when she regains partial sight only to lose it again in a melodious journey of self-discovery. Albert’s work is a dramatically imposing film from beginning to end, one that refuses to show Habsburg Austria through a rose-colored lens.

This movie is sponsored by the Austrian Consulate General in Los Angeles.