"The Theater-creaters" - About the actor Bruscon, who stops in the small village of Utzbach on tour and tries to successfully bring his play "Das Rad der Geschichte/The Wheel of History" on stage. His whole family - the wife, son and daughter - are involved as actors.
Heldenplatz centers on a Jewish family in the Vienna of 1988. The main character, Professor Josef Schuster, a mathematician, who can no longer stand the anti-Semitism he still finds in Austria 50 years after the Anschluss – commits suicide by jumping out of his apartment window onto the historic Heldenplatz before the play begins.
Thomas Bernhard in Madrid.
Thomas Bernhard rarely engaged in on-camera interviews and conversations. However, he was extremely taken with the television films created by Krista Fleischmann and recognized – both confidently and with foresight – their lasting value for posterity: “I feel this portrait is an entirely successful document whose usefulness will grow.”
The bark-beetle has invaded the big forest of the general, just as a fatal illness has into the body of its owner. The general is suffering from eye cataract, preventing him from seeing the symptoms of the trees' decline, just as he is unable to see his own rottening. His wife and the writer discuss these circumstances for two scenes, until the general discovers the fact himself in the third one. Now he is going to take appropriate action.
This portrait of the great Austrian writer combines a brilliant monologue delivered by Thomas Bernhard and the artful film work of Ferry Radax.