Falling

The death of a schoolteacher leads to a reunion between a handful of close friends in this drama from writer and director Barbara Albert. Five longtime friends return to the town where they grew up for the first time since they were teenagers in order to pay their respects to a teacher who had a major impact on their lives. However, fate has taken the five women in very different directions since they left school. Carmen (Kathrin Resetarits) has become a working actress, Alex (Ursula Strauss) is a clerk at an unemployment office, Brigitte (Birgit Minichmayr) works as a schoolteacher, Nina (Nina Proll) is out of a job and anticipating the birth a baby is two months, and Nicole (Gabriela Hegedus) has fallen into a life of crime and has been given a furlough from prison to attend the funeral, with her 12-year-old daughter Daphne (Ina Strand) in tow. As the women look back at the possibilities of their youth, they must also consider the circumstances which led them where they are today, and the bonds of friendship which still hold them together despite the physical distance between them. Falling was screened in competition at the 2006 Venice Film Festival.