27 Storeys

The glory days of the seventies are still very much alive in Vienna's 23rd district. Here stands the utopian Wohnpark Alterlaa, the crown jewel of Austrian architect Harry Glück's oeuvre. Filmmaker Bianca Gleissinger humorously shows the overjoyed residents. In this social housing complex, everyone can live like a rich man. On top of the flats, they sunbathe by the swimming pool. 27 Storeys: Alterlaa Forever is also a personal ode to a building that the filmmaker herself had to leave with reluctance after her parents' divorce. A particularly entertaining look at a successful complex where proud residents talk about their apartments and hobbies. The colourful, nostalgic images are at times just as alienating as this apparent paradise on earth. The filmmaker leaves the question open: is everything really as beautiful as it seems?

Prelude: A Home on Every Floor 11' Signe Rosenlund-Hauglid Poet Hanna Asefaw grew up in a low-income housing estate in Oslo consisting of three buildings and 155 apartments. In this village-like community, children could find grandmothers with an endless supply of candy in their pockets and a home on every floor. In her spoken-word performance, Asefaw takes us inside a scale model of the house she was raised in. She tells stories of community, diversity, and belonging—and the political indifference that has destroyed it all. The buildings were sold shortly after her family moved in to a single developer who “minimally renovated and maxed out the rent,” forcing many residents to move out.