The celebrated Austrian play, Ein Süsses Geheimnis (A Sweet Secret) from 1927, which later became a popular German film with the Meryl Streep of the day, Hansi Niese, brings to life a forgotten feminist comedy from pre-Holocaust Vienna, where diversity and progressive thought were still possible. This romantic comedy centers around a self-determined matriarch, Therese, helping her three daughters navigate the expectations of rigid, societal beliefs – often leading by example – as they find their way into adulthood. Moving back and forth between the archive of its time both through the re-appropriation of Nazi newsreels and propaganda films, as well as ephemeral films of the time (Baker Archives), and the new staging of the play, this new film by Bernadette Wegenstein, currently in development, will take the audience inside a theater space where a vibrant environment of escapism smashes against the harsh reality of its time, which is as vivid as it was 80 years ago.
