Fanny Hobichler, a young promising actress, moves to Vienna in the 1920s in order to pursue her big break. She draws inspiration and seeks help from the popular stage actor Albert Kortz who once started out from the same provincial town as she did and was a close friend of her late father. Kortz, however, dreams of retiring as he is tired of his fame and having to deal with the short-tempered theatre director Jason. Together, they try to outwit Jason.
A psychological and existential study of a prisoner charged with guarding an isolated lighthouse. If he makes it through two years, the remainder of his sentence for manslaughter in a bar brawl will be pardoned. Nobody before managed to cope with the solitude. One day, a rat makes its way to the island. The sea and the island, the man and the rat, friendship and vendetta.
Vienna, a few days before the shots in Sarajevo which would trigger what was first called the Great, later simply the First World War: Job seekers from the crown lands flock to the capital of the empire in search of a better life, even if it's the factory hell . A new social class is growing faster and faster, the city overflows with the poor, lower-class workers and the unemployed. Labor fighters can be heard louder, better, clearer, every day. The nobility strongly suspects its end.
Episodic film based on the book by and starring Friedrich Torberg.
